Sample records for sun illuminated azimuth

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This georeferenced image represents 5 meter resolution bathymetry (sunilluminated with azimuth 225 and incline 45) of the north shore of St. Croix, US Virgin...

Dual axis trackers employing azimuth and elevation rotations are common in the field of photovoltaic (PV) energy generation. Accurate sun-tracking algorithms are widely available. However, a steering algorithm has not been available to accurately point the tracker away from the sun such that a vector projection of the sun beam onto the tracker face falls along a desired path relative to the tracker face. We have developed an algorithm which produces the appropriate azimuth and elevation angles for a dual axis tracker when given the sun position, desired angle of incidence, and the desired projection of the sun beam onto the tracker face. Development of this algorithm was inspired by the need to accurately steer a tracker to desired sun-relative positions in order to better characterize the electro-optical properties of PV and CPV modules.

The measurement of solar magnetic fields using the Zeeman effect diagnostics has a fundamental 180 degree ambiguity in the determination of the azimuth angle of the transverse field component. There are several methods that are used in the community and each one has its merits and demerits. Here we present a disambiguation idea that is based on the assumption that most of the magnetic field on the sun is predominantly vertical. While the method is not applicable to penumbra or other features harboring predominantly horizontal fields like the sheared neutral lines, it is useful for regions where fields are predominantly vertical like network and plage areas. The method is tested with the full-disk solar vector magnetograms observed by the VSM/SOLIS instrument. We find that statistically about 60-85 % of the pixels in a typical full-disk magnetogram has field inclination in the range of 0-30 degrees with respect to the local solar normal, and thus can be successfully disambiguated by the proposed method. Due to...

We present the first observational detection of radial and azimuthal oscillations in full halo coronal mass ejections (HCMEs). We analyze nine HCMEs well-observed by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) from 2011 February to June. Using the LASCO C3 running difference images, we estimated the instantaneous apparent speeds of the HCMEs in different radial directions from the solar disk center. We find that the development of all these HCMEs is accompanied by quasi-periodic variations of the instantaneous radial velocity with the periods ranging from 24 to 48 minutes. The amplitudes of the instant speed variations reach about a half of the projected speeds. The amplitudes are found to anti-correlate with the periods and correlate with the HCME speed, indicating the nonlinear nature of the process. The oscillations have a clear azimuthal structure in the heliocentric polar coordinate system. The oscillations in seven events are found to be associated with distinct azimuthal wave modes with the azimuthal wave number m = 1 for six events and m = 2 for one event. The polarization of the oscillations in these seven HCMEs is broadly consistent with those of their position angles with the mean difference of 43°. The oscillations may be connected with natural oscillations of the plasmoids around a dynamical equilibrium, or self-oscillatory processes, e.g., the periodic shedding of Alfvénic vortices. Our results indicate the need for an advanced theory of oscillatory processes in coronal mass ejections.

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Nitrogen oxide radicals (NO+NO{sub 2}) are important trace gases in the atmosphere. They originate from combustion processes, lightning and soil emissions and largely control the tropospheric ozone production Since several decades it is possible to measure NO{sub 2} with different techniques. However, for the spatial distribution in the troposphere considerable uncertainty exists. Here we present measurements of NO{sub 2} on and close to the campus of the University of Bremen applying a novel technique: Topographic Target Light scattering Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (ToTaL-DOAS, Frins et al.). The basic idea is to collect scattered sunlight reflected from natural and artificial targets (e.g. high buildings) at different distances from the measuring device. Then recorded spectra are analyzed for NO{sub 2} applying the DOAS method. Simple geometric treatments of the light-path reveal NO{sub 2} concentrations in the boundary layer as a final data set. This study presents NO{sub 2} data in 2008 in the surrounding of the University of Bremen. In addition for some days the ZARM Drop Tower has been used as illuminated target to investigate the vertical distribution of NO{sub 2}. Selected data sets have been compared to complementary measurements of the regular iup Bremen MAX-DOAS setup and to the Bremian BLUES air pollution network.

Full Text Available Because the waggle dances of honeybees contain celestial components, modifications of the dances occur with changing celestial moves relative to a honeybee nest. Since the direction of a particular resource is static, the dances must alter to compensate for the sun's passage. The position of the sun is seasonal between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn so that turns at the end of waggle runs will vary with season and latitude. The bees are confronted with a new difficulty when the sun closely approaches its zenith because only slight errors in the bees' estimation of the relative positions of the sun and zenith generate very large errors. So, the sun compass loses its usefulness when at its zenith. We review experiments and observations on both foraging and absconding in relation to the azimuth. The honeybees' solution for the paradox of the azimuth includes an azimuthal lull, preferences, and time windows.

The report describes the development and optimization of optical scheme of the illumination optics of the entrance slit for the high-resolution fiber-fed echelle-spectrograph. The optical system of the illuminator provides the necessary agreement of the numerical apertures of the fiber and spectrograph, as well as it allows to install the necessary equipment to obtain the required structure of the image. As a result of the designing two components illumination system was obtained, which has a good transmission in a specified spectral range and low cost. This research provides a good instrument for performing modern researches for the astronomy.

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior — This data set includes sun-illuminated of the sea floor offshore of eastern Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The data were collected with a multibeam sea floor mapping...

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior — This data set includes sun-illuminated of the sea floor offshore of eastern Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The data were collected with a multibeam sea floor mapping...

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior — This data set includes sun-illuminated of the sea floor offshore of eastern Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The data were collected with a multibeam sea floor mapping...

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior — This data set includes sun-illuminated of the sea floor offshore of eastern Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The data were collected with a multibeam sea floor mapping...

In the midst of a changing climate we have seen extremes in weather events: lightning, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. All of these ride on an imbalance of magnetic and electrical distribution about the earth including what goes on from the atmospheric and geophysic levels. There is relevance to the important role the sun plays in developing and feeding of the extreme weather events along with the sun's role helping to create a separation of charges on earth furthering climactic extremes. Focusing attention in North America and on how the sun, atmospheric and geophysic winds come together producing lightning events, there are connections between energy distribution in the environment, lightning caused wildfires, and extreme wildfire behavior. Lightning caused wildfires and extreme fire behavior have become enhanced with the changing climate conditions. Even with strong developments in wildfire science, there remains a lack in full understanding of connections that create a lightning caused wildfire event and lack of monitoring advancements in predicting extreme fire behavior. Several connections have been made in our research allowing us to connect multiple facets of the environment in regards to electric and magnetic influences on wildfires. Among them include: irradiance, winds, pressure systems, humidity, and topology. The connections can be made to develop better detection systems of wildfires, establish with more accuracy areas of highest risk for wildfire and extreme wildfire behavior, and prediction of wildfire behavior. A platform found within the environment can also lead to further understanding and monitoring of other extreme weather events in the future.

This data set contains the sea floor topographic contours, sun-illuminated topographic imagery, and backscatter intensity generated from a multibeam sonar survey of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary region off Boston, Massachusetts, an area of approximately 1100 square nautical miles. The Stellwagen Bank NMS Mapping Project is designed to provide detailed maps of the Stellwagen Bank region's environments and habitats and the first complete multibeam topographic and sea floor characterization maps of a significant region of the shallow EEZ. Data were collected on four cruises over a two year period from the fall of 1994 to the fall of 1996. The surveys were conducted aboard the Candian Hydrographic Service vessel Frederick G. Creed, a SWATH (Small Waterplane Twin Hull) ship that surveys at speeds of 16 knots. The multibeam data were collected utilizing a Simrad Subsea EM 1000 Multibeam Echo Sounder (95 kHz) that is permanently installed in the hull of the Creed.

Azimuth is an interesting hybrid. In part, it's the personal blog of John Carlos Baez, a mathematical physicist at the University of California, Riverside, whose current research focuses mainly on network theory.

The determination of magnetic declination angle entails finding two directions: geographic north and magnetic north. This paper deals with the former. The known way to do it by using the sun's calculable orientation in the sky is improved by using a device based on a WIDIF DIflux theodolite and split photocells positioned on its telescope ocular. Given the WIDIF accurate timing and location provided by the onboard GPS receiver, an astronomical computation can be effected to accurately and quickly determine the sun's azimuth and an auxiliary mark's azimuth. The precise sun's crossing of the split photocell, amplified by the telescope's magnification, allows azimuth accuracies of a few seconds of arc.

Full Text Available The knowledge of the azimuth of the reference mark is of crucial importance in the determination of the declination which is defined as the ellipsoidal (geodetic azimuth of the geomagnetic meridian. The accuracy of the azimuth determination has direct impact on the accuracy of the declination. The orientation of the Declination-Inclination Magnetometer is usually carried out by sighting the reference mark in two telescope faces in order to improve the reliability of the observations and eliminate some instrumental errors. In this paper, different coordinate as well as azimuth determination methods using GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System observation techniques within VPPS (High-Precision Positioning Service and GPPS (Geodetic-Precision Positioning Service services of the CROPOS (CROatian POsitioning System system were explained. The azimuth determination by the observation of the Polaris was exposed and it was subsequently compared with the observation of the Sun using hour-angle and zenith-distance method. The procedure of the calculation of the geodetic azimuth from the astronomic azimuth was explained. The azimuth results obtained by different methods were compared and the recommendations on the minimal distance between repeat station and azimuth mark were given. The results shown in this paper were based on the observations taken on the POKU_SV repeat station.

A simplified method is described for determining the position of the lunar roving vehicle on the lunar surface during Apollo 15. The method is based upon sun compass azimuth measurements of three lunar landmarks. The difference between the landmark azimuth and the sunazimuth is measured and the resulting data are voice relayed to the Mission Control Center for processing.

Evidence is presented of directional orientation by an alighting dragonfly relative to the azimuth of the sun. The effects of wind direction on this orientation are analyzed. It was concluded that wind does not play a major role in orientation but may have some secondary function in helping greater numbers of dragonflies face windward more often than leeward. A search was made to find the principle sensory receptor for orientation. Two possibilities, the large compound eye and the frontal ocelli, were noted; however, no conclusive evidence could be found.

First observations of elliptic ﬂow in Au–Au collisions at RHIC have been interpreted as evidence that the colliding system reaches thermal equilibrium. We discuss some of the arguments leading to this conclusion and show that a more accurate analysis is needed, which the standard ﬂow analysis may not provide. We then present a new method of ﬂow analysis, based on a systematic study of multiparticle azimuthal correlations. This method allows one to test quantitatively the collective behaviour of the interacting system. It has recently been applied by the STAR Collaboration at RHIC.

It often needs transfer a reference from one place to another place in aerospace and guided missile launching. At first, principles of several typical optical azimuth transmission methods are presented. Several typical methods are introduced, such as Theodolite (including gyro-theodolite) collimation method, Camera series method, Optical apparatus for azimuth method and polarization modulated light transmission method. For these typical azimuth transmission methods, their essential theories are elaborated. Then the devices, the application fields and limitations of these typical methods' are presented. Theodolite (including gyro-theodolite) collimation method is used in the ground assembly of spacecraft. Camera series method and optical apparatus for azimuth method are used in azimuth transmission between different decks of ship. Polarization modulated light transmission method is used in azimuth transmission of rocket and guided missile. At the last, the further developments of these methods are discussed.

The appearance of objects is determined by their surface reflectance and roughness and by the light field. Conversely, human observers might derive properties of the light field from the appearance of objects. The inverse problem has no unique solution, so perceptual interactions between reflectance, roughness, and lightfield are to be expected. In two separate experiments, we tested whether observers are able to match the illumination of spheres under collimated illumination only (matching of illumination direction) and under more or less diffuse illumination (matching of illumination direction and directedness of the beam). We found that observers are quite able to match collimated illumination directions of two rendered Lambertian spheres. Matching of the collimated beam directions of a Lambertian sphere and that of a real object with arbitrary reflectance and roughness properties resulted in similar results for the azimuthal angle, but in higher variance for the polar angle. Translucent objects and a tennis ball were found to be systematic outliers. If the directedness of the beam was also varied, the direction settings showed larger variance for more diffuse illumination. The directedness settings showed an overall quite large variance and, interestingly, interacted with the polar angle settings. We discuss possible photometrical mechanisms behind these effects.

In recent years, green energy has undergone a lot of development and has been the subject of many applications. Many research studies have focused on illumination with sunlight as a means of saving energy and creating healthy lighting. Natural light illumination systems have collecting, transmitting, and lighting elements. Today, most daylight collectors use dynamic concentrators; these include Sun tracking systems. However, this design is too expensive to be cost effective. To create a low-cost collector that can be easily installed on a large building, we have designed a static concentrator, which is prismatic and cascadable, to collect sunlight for indoor illumination. The transmission component uses a large number of optical fibers. Because optical fibers are expensive, this means that most of the cost for the system will be related to transmission. In this paper, we also use a prismatic structure to design an optical coupler for coupling n to 1. With the n-to-1 coupler, the number of optical fibers necessary can be greatly reduced. Although this new natural light illumination system can effectively guide collected sunlight and send it to the basement or to other indoor places for healthy lighting, previously there has been no way to manage the collected sunlight when lighting was not desired. To solve this problem, we have designed an optical switch and a beam splitter to control and separate the transmitted light. When replacing traditional sources, the lighting should have similar characteristics, such as intensity distribution and geometric parameters, to those of traditional artificial sources. We have designed, simulated, and optimized an illumination lightpipe with a dot pattern to redistribute the collected sunlight from the natural light illumination system such that it equals the qualities of a traditional lighting system. We also provide an active lighting module that provides lighting from the natural light illumination system or LED auxiliary

Full Text Available The determination of magnetic declination angle entails finding two directions: geographic north and magnetic north. This paper deals with the former. The known way to do it by using the sun's calculable orientation in the sky is improved by using a device based on a WIDIF DIflux theodolite and split photocells positioned on its telescope ocular. Given the WIDIF accurate timing and location provided by the onboard GPS receiver, an astronomical computation can be effected to accurately and quickly determine the sun's azimuth and an auxiliary mark's azimuth. The precise sun's crossing of the split photocell, amplified by the telescope's magnification, allows azimuth accuracies of a few seconds of arc.

... if you have unusual, bothersome skin reactions after exposure to sunlight. For severe or persistent symptoms, you may need ... m. when the sun is brightest. Avoid sudden exposure to lots of sunlight. Many people have sun allergy symptoms when they ...

Bistatic SAR possesses characteristic of the azimuth space-variant when the velocities of transmitter and receiver are not equal.The geometric model of BiSAR with the parallel trajectories and the nonequal platform velocities is presented.Analyzing the motion relationship of transmitter and receiver,the formula of azimuth space-variant is derived in time domain.Via Taylor polynomial expansions,the azimuth space-variant is factorized by four terms: zero-order,first-order,second-order,and third-order term.And,their impacts on impulse response are illuminated.Some characteristics about azimuth space-variant of airborne BiSAR case are exhibited by simulation experiments,arid these simulated results are coincident with the formulae of azimuth space-variant.

Two-particle azimuthal correlations reveal broadened and softened away-side correlations. Several different physics mechanisms are possible: large angle gluon radiation, deflected jets, and conical flow or Cerenkov radiation. Three-particle correlations are investigated to try to discriminate these mechanisms. We present results on 3-particle azimuthal correlations between a trigger particle of 3

The Aztec Sun Stone is a revered Mexican artifact. It is said to be perhaps the most famous symbol of Mexico, besides its flag. It primarily depicts the four great disasters that led to the migration of the Mexica people to modern-day Mexico City. The Aztec Sun Stone also contains pictographs depicting the way the Mexica measured time, and was…

The Aztec Sun Stone is a revered Mexican artifact. It is said to be perhaps the most famous symbol of Mexico, besides its flag. It primarily depicts the four great disasters that led to the migration of the Mexica people to modern-day Mexico City. The Aztec Sun Stone also contains pictographs depicting the way the Mexica measured time, and was…

Proposed system including digital control computer, control sensors, and control actuators aims telescope or other balloon-borne instrument toward Sun. Pointing system and instrument flown on gondola, suspended from balloon. System includes reaction wheel, which applies azimuthal control torques to gondola, and torque motor to apply low-frequency azimuthal torques between gondola and cable. Three single-axis rate gyroscopes measure yaw, pitch, and roll. Inclinometer measures roll angle. Two-axis Sun sensor measures deviation, in yaw and pitch, of attitude of instrument from line to apparent center of Sun. System provides initial coarse pointing, then maintains fine pointing.

Full Text Available Embedded drilling azimuth gamma design, the use of radioactive measuring principle embedded gamma measurement while drilling a short section analysis. Monte Carlo method, in response to the density of horizontal well logging numerical simulation of 16 orientation, the orientation of horizontal well analysed, calliper, bed boundary location, space, different formation density, formation thickness, and other factors inclined strata dip the impact by simulating 137Cs sources under different formation conditions of the gamma distribution, to determine the orientation of drilling density tool can detect window size and space, draw depth of the logging methods. The data 360° azimuth imaging, image processing method to obtain graph, display density of the formation, dip and strata thickness and other parameters, the logging methods obtain real-time geo-steering. To establish a theoretical basis for the orientation density logging while drilling method implementation and application of numerical simulation in-depth study of the MWD azimuth and density log response factors of horizontal wells.

A simple, inexpensive device for measuring the radiation energy of the sun impinging on the device. The measurement of the energy over an extended period of time is accomplished without moving parts or tracking mechanisms.

Essential for life on earth and a major influence on our environment, the Sun is also the most fascinating object in the daytime sky. Every day we feel the effect of its coming and going – literally the difference between day and night. But figuring out what the Sun is, what it’s made of, why it glows so brightly, how old it is, how long it will last – all of these take thought and observation. Leon Golub and Jay M. Pasachoff offer an engaging and informative account of what scientists know about the Sun, and the history of these discoveries. Solar astronomers have studied the Sun over the centuries both for its intrinsic interest and in order to use it as a laboratory to reveal the secrets of other stars. The authors discuss the surface of the Sun, including sunspots and their eleven-year cycle, as well as the magnetism that causes them; the Sun’s insides, as studied mainly from seismic waves that astronomers record on its surface; the outer layers of the Sun that we see from Earth only at eclipses ...

Midnight Sun, the University of Waterloo's solar-electric car, was designed and built by about 30 engineering, kinesiology and physics students for the GM Sunrayce USA held in July 1990. The car measures 2 m by 4.2 m, weighs 224 kg, can collect about 1000 W of solar electricity in full sun, and had a top speed of 79 km/h. The race took 11 days to cover the 1644 miles from the Epcot Center in Lake Buena Vista, Florida to the GM Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. Thirty-two cars, powered only by solar energy, competed in this race. Midnight Sun showed its potential during the race qualifying runs by completing the required qualifying course with the 12th fastest time of 52.83 seconds, and the 6th fastest trap speed of 63 km/h. During the Sunrayce, Midnight Sun came in second on day 1 of the race, tenth on day 6, and eighth on day 7, and was one of only 17 solar cars that were able to make it up the toughest hill in the race on day 8. The most serious problems encountered by the car were a weak rear suspension, power losses, and failure of bypass diodes in the photovoltaic array. Midnight Sun was in 17th place overall at the end of day 9. At about 11:00 am on day 10 in Ohio, the Waterloo car was moving at 60 km/h when it was bumped off the road by an out of control pickup truck. The solar car driver was not hurt. Despite the difficulties, the next day Midnight Sun was repaired and driven across the finish line at the ceremonial finish. After receiving time penalties for not completing the last day and a half of the race, Midnight Sun was awarded 24th place with an official cumulative time of 114 h 37 min 15 s. 4 figs., 4 tabs.

Soils are the most heterogeneous parts of the biosphere, with an extremely high differentiation of properties and processes at all spatial and temporal scales. Importance of the hotspheres such as rhizosphere, detritusphere, porosphere (including drilosphere and biopores), hyphasphere and spermosphere, calls for spatially explicit methods to illuminate distribution of microbial activities in these hotspheres (Kuzyakov and Blagodatskaya, 2015). Zymography technique has previously been adapted to visualize the spatial dynamics of enzyme activities in rhizosphere (Spohn and Kuzyakov, 2014). Here, we further developed soil zymography to obtain a higher resolution of enzyme activities by enabling direct contact of substrate-saturated membranes with soil. For the first time, we aimed at quantitative imaging of enzyme activities in various hotspheres. We calculated and compared percentage of enzymatic hotspots of five hotspheres: spermosphere, rhizosphere, detritusphere, drilosphere and biopores. Spatial distribution of activities of two enzymes: β-glucosidase and leucine amino peptidase were analyzed in the spermosphere, rhizosphere and detritusphere of maize and lentil. Zymography has been done 3 days (spermosphere), 14 days (rhizosphere) after sowing and 21 days after cutting plant (detritusphere). Spatial resolution of fluorescent images was improved by direct application fluorogenically labelled substrates on the soil surface. Such improvement enabled to visualize enzyme distribution of mycorrhiza hypha on the rhizobox surface. Further, to visualize the 2D distribution of the enzyme activities in porosphere, we placed earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris), (drilosphere) and ground beetle species Platynus dorsalis Pont. (Coleoptera; Carabidae), (biopore), in transparent boxes for 2weeks. The developed in situ zymography visualized the heterogeneity of enzyme activities along and across the roots. Spatial patterns of enzyme activities as a function of distance along the

Full Text Available of Optical Modes Angela Dudley1, Igor Litvin1, Filippus S. Roux1 and Andrew Forbes1,2,3 1 CSIR National Laser Centre, Pretoria, South Africa 2 School of Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa 3 Laser Research Institute, University... of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa Presented at the 2012 South African Institute of Physics Conference University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa 12 July 2012 To decompose the azimuthal modes we need two steps: generation and decomposition...

the ideas of Alfred Gell’s anthropology of art and the indicative framework derived from Argentinian semiotician Juan Pablo Bonta and Jørn Guldberg. The toy-like solar lamp Little Sun by Olafur Eliasson and Frederik Ottesen is used as case that blends the registers of social design and art......, and as an example of how designers attempt to determine meaning potentials through design in a complex interplay of different strategies. In the final analysis, what characterise objects like Little Sun is seldom that they communicate their meanings in themselves, but instead rely on forceful mediations to gain...

the ideas of Alfred Gell’s anthropology of art and the indicative framework derived from Argentinian semiotician Juan Pablo Bonta and Jørn Guldberg. The toy-like solar lamp Little Sun by Olafur Eliasson and Frederik Ottesen is used as case that blends the registers of social design and art......, and as an example of how designers attempt to determine meaning potentials through design in a complex interplay of different strategies. In the final analysis, what characterise objects like Little Sun is seldom that they communicate their meanings in themselves, but instead rely on forceful mediations to gain...

In this podcast for kids, the Kidtastics talk about the harmful effects of the sun and how to protect yourself from it. Created: 10/23/2012 by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Date Released: 10/23/2012.

Full Text Available By using digital holograms, we present a simple technique for performing a complete azimuthal decomposition of an arbitrary laser mode. The match-filter, used to perform the azimuthal decomposition, is bounded by an annular ring, allowing us...

A general solution of sun tracking for an arbitrarily oriented heliostat towards an arbitrarily located target on the earth is published. With the most general form of solar tracking formulae, it is seen that the used azimuth-elevation, spinning-elevation tracking formulae etc. are the special cases of it. The possibilities of utilizing the general solution and its significance in solar energy engineering are discussed.

Source: EP2426402A The invention relates to a fibre illumination module and system for the collection and delivery of daylight for illumination purposes. The fibre illumination module comprises a plurality of collector elements, each collector element comprising an input fibre having a first end......-directional arrangement. The fibre illumination system comprises a fibre illumination module of the above-mentioned type. By the invention, daylight may be exploited for the illumination of remote interior spaces of buildings in order to save energy, and improve the well-being of users in both housing and working...

We consider the interaction of differential rotation and toroidal fields that are current-free in the gap between two corotating axially unbounded cylinders. It is shown that nonaxisymmetric perturbations are unstable if the rotation rate and Alfven frequency of the field are of the same order almost independent of the magnetic Prandtl number Pm. For the very steep rotation law \\Omega\\propto R^{-2} (the Rayleigh limit) this Azimuthal MagnetoRotational Instability (AMRI) scales with the ordinary Reynolds number and the Hartmann number, which allows a laboratory experiment with liquid metals like sodium or gallium in a Taylor-Couette container. The growth rate of AMRI scales with \\Omega^2 in the low-conductivity limit and with \\Omega in the high-conductivity limit. For the weakly nonlinear system the numerical values of the kinetic energy and the magnetic energy are derived for magnetic Prandtl numbers between 0.05 and unity. We find that the magnetic energy scales with the magnetic Reynolds number Rm, while th...

Several studies discussing imaging polarimetry observations of protoplanetary disks use the so-called radial Stokes parameters Q_phi and U_phi to discuss the results. This approach has the advantage of providing a direct measure of the noise in the polarized images under the assumption that the polarization is azimuthal only, i.e., perpendicular to the direction towards the illuminating source. However, a detailed study of the validity of this assumption is currently missing. We aim to test whether departures from azimuthal polarization can naturally be produced by scattering processes in optically thick protoplanetary disks at near infrared wavelengths. We use the radiative transfer code MCFOST to create a generic model of a transition disk using different grain size distributions and dust masses. From these models we generate synthetic polarized images at 2.2\\mum. We find that even for moderate inclinations (e.g., i = 40degr), multiple scattering alone can produce significant (up to ~4.5% of the Q_phi image...

The ability to reduce risk and uncertainty across the full life cycle of an asset is directly correlated to creating an accurate subsurface image that enhances our understanding of the geology. This presentation focuses on this objective in areas of complex overburden in deepwater. Marine 3D seismic surveys have been acquired in essentially the same way for the past decade. This configuration of towed streamer acquisition, where the boat acquires data in one azimuth has been very effective in imaging areas in fairly benign geologic settings. As the industry has moved into more complicated geologic settings these surveys no longer meet the imaging objectives for risk reduction in exploration through production. In shallow water, we have seen increasing use of ocean bottom cables to meet this challenge. For deepwater, new breakthroughs in technology were required. This will be highlighted through examples of imaging below large salt bodies in the deep water Gulf of Mexico. GoM - Mad Dog: The Mad Dog field is located approximately 140 miles south of the Louisiana coastline in the southern Green Canyon area in water depths between 4100 feet to 6000 feet. The complex salt canopy overlying a large portion of the field results in generally poor seismic data quality. Advanced processing techniques improved the image, but gaps still remained even after several years of effort. We concluded that wide azimuth acquisition was required to illuminate the field in a new way. Results from the Wide Azimuth Towed Streamer (WATS) survey deployed at Mad Dog demonstrated the anticipated improvement in the subsalt image. GoM - Atlantis Field: An alternative approach to wide azimuth acquisition, ocean bottom seismic (OBS) node technology, was developed and tested. In 2001 deepwater practical experience was limited to a few nodes owned by academic institutions and there were no commercial solutions either available or in development. BP embarked on a program of sea trials designed to both

Essential to sensory processing in the human visual system is natural illumination, which can vary considerably not only across space but also along the day depending on the atmospheric conditions and the sun's position in the sky. In this work, edges derived from the three postreceptoral Luminance, Red-Green, and Blue-Yellow signals were computed from hyperspectral images of natural scenes rendered with daylights of Correlated Color Temperatures (CCTs) from 2735 to 25,889 K; for low CCT, the same analysis was performed using Planckian illuminants up to 800 K. It was found that average luminance and chromatic edge contrasts were maximal for low correlated color temperatures and almost constants above 10,000 K. The magnitude of these contrast changes was, however, only about 2% across the tested daylights. Results suggest that the postreceptoral opponent and nonopponent color vision mechanisms produce almost constant responses for color edge detection under natural illumination.

Nanostructures have the potential to significantly increase the output power-density of ultra-thin photovoltaic devices by scattering incident sunlight into resonant guided modes. We applied a modified version of the direct-binary-search algorithm to design such nanostructures in order to maximize the output power-density under oblique-illumination conditions. We show that with appropriate design of nanostructured cladding layers, it is possible for a 10nm-thick organic absorber to produce an average peak power-density of 4 mW/cm² with incident polar angle ranging from -90° to 90° and incident azimuthal angle ranging from -23.5° to 23.5°. Using careful modal and spectral analysis, we further show that an optimal trade-off of absorption at λ~510 nm among various angles of incidence is essential to excellent performance under oblique illumination. Finally, we show that the optimized device with no sun tracking can produce on an average 7.23 times more energy per year than that produced by a comparable unpatterned device with an optimal anti-reflection coating.

Full Text Available Illumination analysis of spacecraft is very important. This paper firstly introduces the importance of spacecraft illumination analysis in aerospace fields and points out that illumination conditions will influence the design of shape of spacecraft body and the installation of spacecraft equipments. Then, it discusses two methods for analyzing spacecraft solar-panel shadow and illumination conditions: ray tracing illumination algorithm and polyhedral mesh contour edge projection algorithm and compares their efficiency and feasibility. Shadow area and solar area are computed of every cell on solar panels. We designed solar panel single-axis rotation experiment to validate the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that contour edge projection algorithm has fine accuracy and costs less time. For detailed illumination information, we apply a practical segment clipping algorithm after some comparisons.

The sun compass was discovered by G. Kramer in caged birds showing migratory restlessness. Subsequent experiments with caged birds employing directional training and clock shifts, carried out by Hoffman and Schmidt-Koenig, showed that the sunazimuth is used, and the sun altitude ignored. In the laboratory, McDonald found the accuracy to be +/- 3 degrees(-)+/- 5 degrees. According to Hoffmann and Schmidt-Koenig, caged birds trained at medium northern latitudes were able to allow for the sun's apparent movement north of the arctic circle, but not in equatorial and trans-equatorial latitudes. In homing experiments, and employing clock shifts, Schmidt-Koenig demonstrated that the sun compass is used by homing pigeons during initial orientation. This finding is the principal evidence for the existence of a map-and-compass navigational system. Pigeons living in equatorial latitudes utilize the sun compass even under the extreme solar conditions of equinox, achieving angular resolution of about 3 degrees in homing experiments. According to preliminary analyses, the homing pigeons' ephemerides are retarded by several weeks (Ranvaud, Schmidt-Koenig, Ganzhorn et al.).

The paper proposes a technique for estimation outdoor illumination conditions in terms of sun and sky radiances directly from pixel values of dynamic shadows detected in video sequences produved by a commercial stereo camera. The technique is applied to the rendering of virtual object into the im......The paper proposes a technique for estimation outdoor illumination conditions in terms of sun and sky radiances directly from pixel values of dynamic shadows detected in video sequences produved by a commercial stereo camera. The technique is applied to the rendering of virtual object...

According to Koffka (1935), the lightness of a target surface is determined by the relationship between the target and the illumination frame of reference to which it belongs. However, each scene contains numerous illumination frames, and judging each one separately would lead to an enormous amount of computing. Grouping those frames that are in…

This catalog lists the slides of medieval manuscript illuminations available at the Midwestern Medieval Illuminations Archives at the Purdue University Audio-Visual Center. Instructions are provided for ordering slides from the Center. Slide sets are listed by title, with citations including catalog number, rental price, producer/vendor code,…

Spokes are azimuthally propagating perturbations in the plasma discharge of Hall Effect Thrusters (HETs) that travel in the E x B direction and have been observed in many different systems. The propagation of azimuthal spokes are investigated in a 6 kW HET known as the H6 using ultra-fast imaging and azimuthally spaced probes. A spoke surface is a 2-D plot of azimuthal light intensity evolution over time calculated from 87,500 frames/s videos. The spoke velocity has been determined using three methods with similar results: manual fitting of diagonal lines on the spoke surface, linear cross-correlation between azimuthal locations and an approximated dispersion relation. The spoke velocity for three discharge voltages (300, 400 and 450 V) and three anode mass flow rates (14.7, 19.5 and 25.2 mg/s) yielded spoke velocities between 1500 and 2200 m/s across a range of normalized magnetic field settings. The spoke velocity was inversely dependent on magnetic field strength for low B-field settings and asymptoted at B-field higher values. The velocities and frequencies are compared to standard drifts and plasma waves such as E x B drift, electrostatic ion cyclotron, magnetosonic and various drift waves. The empirically approximated dispersion relation yielded a characteristic velocity that matched the ion acoustic speed for 5 eV electrons that exist in the near-anode and near-field plume regions of the discharge channel based on internal measurements. Thruster performance has been linked to operating mode where thrust-to-power is maximized when azimuthal spokes are present so investigating the underlying mechanism of spokes will benefit thruster operation.

We have determined the azimuthal orientation of an adsorbate on a metal surface from an intramolecular-transition-derived feature in reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS). Adsorption of 9-anthracene carboxylic acid onto p\\(2×1\\)O/Cu110 led to an ordered structure with a strong (2%), derivativelike feature at 4.5 eV. Fresnel theory predicts the measured intensity, functional behavior, and sense of the RAS signal for the molecule aligned along [110]. IR measurements confirm that the molecular plane is perpendicular to the surface and STM measurements support the azimuthal orientation. We reassign the sense of the clean Cu(110) surface RA spectrum.

The SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) on Envisat (2002-2012) performed nadir, limb, solar/lunar occultation and various monitoring measurements. The pointing information of the instrument is determined by the attitude information of the Envisat platform with its star trackers together with the encoder readouts of both the azimuth and the elevation scanner of SCIAMACHY. In this work, we present additional sources of attitude information from the SCIAMACHY measurements itself. The basic principle is the same as used by the star tracker: we measure the viewing direction towards celestial objects, i.e. sun and moon, to detect possible mispointings. In sun over limb port observations, we utilise the vertical scans over the solar disk. In horizontal direction, SCIAMACHY's sun follower device (SFD) is used to adjust the viewing direction. Moon over limb port measurements use for both the vertical and the horizontal direction the adjustment by the SFD. The viewing direction is steered towards the intensity centroid of the illuminated part of the lunar disk. We use reference images from the USGS Robotic Lunar Observatory (ROLO) to take into account the inhomogeneous surface and the variations by lunar libration and phase to parameterise the location of the intensity centroid from the observation geometry. Solar observations through SCIAMACHY's so-called sub-solar port (with a viewing direction closely to zenith) also use the SFD in the vertical direction. In the horizontal direction the geometry of the port defines the viewing direction. Using these three type of measurements, we fit improved mispointing parameters by minimising the pointing offsets in elevation and azimuth. The geolocation of all retrieved products will benefit from this; the tangent heights are especially improved. The altitudes assigned to SCIAMACHY's solar occultation measurements are changed in the range of -130 to -330 m, the lunar occultation

Full Text Available The SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY on Envisat (2002–2012 performed nadir, limb, solar/lunar occultation and various monitoring measurements. The pointing information of the instrument is determined by the attitude information of the Envisat platform with its star trackers together with the encoder readouts of both the azimuth and the elevation scanner of SCIAMACHY. In this work, we present additional sources of attitude information from the SCIAMACHY measurements itself. The basic principle is the same as used by the star tracker: we measure the viewing direction towards celestial objects, i.e. sun and moon, to detect possible mispointings. In sun over limb port observations, we utilise the vertical scans over the solar disk. In horizontal direction, SCIAMACHY's sun follower device (SFD is used to adjust the viewing direction. Moon over limb port measurements use for both the vertical and the horizontal direction the adjustment by the SFD. The viewing direction is steered towards the intensity centroid of the illuminated part of the lunar disk. We use reference images from the USGS Robotic Lunar Observatory (ROLO to take into account the inhomogeneous surface and the variations by lunar libration and phase to parameterise the location of the intensity centroid from the observation geometry. Solar observations through SCIAMACHY's so-called sub-solar port (with a viewing direction closely to zenith also use the SFD in the vertical direction. In the horizontal direction the geometry of the port defines the viewing direction. Using these three type of measurements, we fit improved mispointing parameters by minimising the pointing offsets in elevation and azimuth. The geolocation of all retrieved products will benefit from this; the tangent heights are especially improved. The altitudes assigned to SCIAMACHY's solar occultation measurements are changed in the range of −130 to −330 m, the lunar

Source: EP2426402A The invention relates to a fibre illumination module and system for the collection and delivery of daylight for illumination purposes. The fibre illumination module comprises a plurality of collector elements, each collector element comprising an input fibre having a first end...... the proximal end of the collection optics into the first end of the input fibre, each collector element having a principal axis for the collection of light defining an optical axis of the collector element. The optical axes of the collector elements are arranged in a radially outward pointing multi...

We analyze the azimuthal anisotropy of jet spectra due to energy loss of hard partons in quark–gluon plasma, created initially in nuclear overlap zone in collisions with non-zero impact parameter. The calculations are performed for semi-central Pb–Pb collisions at LHC energy.

Saturn's rings represent a collection of icy centimeter to meter size particles with their local dynamic dictated by self gravity, mutual collisions, surface roughness and thickness of the rings themselves. The infrared observations obtained by the CIRS infrared spectrometer on board Cassini over the last 3.5 year contain informations on the local dynamic, as the thermal signature of planetary rings is influenced both by the ring structure and the particle properties. The ring temperature is very dependent on the solar phase angle (Spilker et al., this issue), and on the local hour angle around Saturn, depending on whether or not particles' visible hemispheres are heated by the Sun. The geometric filling factor, which can be estimated from CIRS spectra, is less dependent on the local hour angle, suggesting that the non isothermal behavior of particles' surfaces have low impact, but it is very dependent on the spacecraft elevation for the A and C rings. The ring small scale structure can be explored using CIRS data. Variations of the filling factor with the local hour angle relative to the spacecraft azimuth reveals self-gravity wakes. We derive morphological parameters of such wakes in both A and B rings assuming that wakes can be modeled either by regularly spaced bars with infinite or finite optical depth. Our results indicates that wakes in the A ring are almost flat, with a ratio height/width ≈ 0.44 ± 0.16 and with a pitch angle relative to the orbital motion direction of ≍ 27deg. This is consistent with UVIS (Colwell et al., 2006) and VIMS data (Hedman et al., 2007). Such models are more difficult to constrain in the B ring, but small variations of the filling factor indicate that the pitch angle decreases drastically in this ring. We also present a new thermal bar model to explain azimuthal variations of temperatures in the A ring. We compare results with previous ring thermal models of spherical particles. The Cassini/CIRS azimuthal scans data set is

Landsat imagery comes with sun position information such as azimuth and sun elevation, but they are available only at the center of a scene. To aid in the use of Landsat imagery for various solar radiation applications such as topographic correction, solar power, urban heat island, agriculture, climate and vegetation, it is necessary to calculate the sun position information at every pixel. This research developed a PC application that creates sun position data layers in ArcGIS at every pixel in a Landsat scene. The SPC program is composed of two major routines - converting universal transverse Mercator (UTM) projection coordinates to geographic longitudes and latitudes, and calculating sun position information based on the Meeus' routine. For the latter, an innovative method was also implemented to account for the Earth's flattening on an ellipsoid. The Meeus routine implemented in this research showed about 0.2‧ of mean absolute difference from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Solar Position Algorithm (SPA) routine when solar zenith and azimuth angles were tested with every 30 min data at four city locations (Fairbanks, Atlanta, Sydney and Rio Grande) on June 30, 2014. The Meeus routine was about ten times faster than the SPA routine. Professionals who need the Sun's position information for Landsat imagery will benefit from the SPC application.

This paper derives a model of diffuse and specular illumination in arbitrarily large dimensions, based on a few characteristics of material and light in three-space. It then describes how to adjust for the anomaly of excess brightness in large codimensions. If a surface is grooved or furry, it can be illuminated with a hybrid model that incorporates both the one dimensional geometry (the grooves or fur) and the two dimensional geometry (the surface).

The Sun symbol is found in many cultures throughout history, it has played an important role in shaping our life on Earth since the dawn of time. Since the beginning of human existence, civilisations have established religious beliefs that involved the Sun's significance to some extent. As new civilisations and religions developed, many spiritual beliefs were based on those from the past so that there has been an evolution of the Sun's significance throughout cultural development. For comparing and finding the origin of the Sun we made a table of 66 languages and compared the roots of the words. For finding out from where these roots came from, we also made a table of 21 Sun Gods and Goddesses and proved the direct crossing of language and mythology.

Optical vortices (OV) are a set of solutions of the paraxial Helmholtz equation in the cylindrical coordinates, and its wave front has a spiral shape. Since the Doppler shift is caused by the phase change by the movement in a wave field, the observer in the OV, which has the three-dimensional structured wave front, feels a three-dimensional Doppler effect. Since the multi-dimensional Doppler components are mixed into a single Doppler spectrum, development of a decomposition method is required. We performed a modified saturated absorption spectroscopy to separate the components. The OV and plane wave are used as a probe beam and pump beam, respectively. Although the plane-wave pump laser cancels the z-direction Doppler shift, the azimuthal Doppler shift remains in the saturated dip. The spatial variation of the dip width gives the information of the azimuthal Doppler shift. The some results of optical vortex spectroscopy will be presented.

We present a rap song composed for the Sun, our star. This Sun's Rap Song can be utilized in classroom teaching to spark the students' interest and facilitate the students' learning of the relevant subjects.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — The Medical Product Safety Network (MedSun) is an adverse event reporting program launched in 2002. The primary goal for MedSun is to work collaboratively with the...

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — The Medical Product Safety Network (MedSun) is an adverse event reporting program launched in 2002. The primary goal for MedSun is to work collaboratively with the...

Using the recent experimental data on the left right asymmetry in fragmentation of transversely polarized quarks and the theoretical calculation of the proton transversity distribution in the effective chiral quark soliton model we explain the azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive hadron production on longitudinal (HERMES) and transversely (SMC) polarized targets with no free parameters. On this basis we state that the proton transversity distribution could be successfully measured in future DIS experiments with longitudinally polarized target.

Using the general helicity formula for \\gamma^* \\gamma^* collisions, we are showing that it should be possible to determine a number of independent ``structure functions'', i.e. linear combinations of elements of the two-photon helicity tensor, through azimuthal correlations in two-body or quasi two-body reactions induced by the photon-photon interaction, provided certain experimental conditions are satisfied. Numerical results of our computations are presented for some particular processes and dynamic models.

We report on surface scattering experiments in the MeV regime. N{sup q+} (q=1, 2) ions with 0.7-1.4 MeV are scattered off a single-crystalline Pt(110)(1x2) surface under grazing incidence and specular reflection geometry. We investigate the energy loss dependency on the azimuthal angle under variation of the perpendicular energy.

A novel finite-element method for calculating the illumination-dependence of absorption in three-dimensional nanostructures is presented based on the RF module of the COMSOL software package. This method is capable of numerically determining the optical response and near-field distribution of sub-wavelength periodic structures as a function of illumination orientations specified by polar angle, fi, and azimuthal angle, gamma. The method was applied to determine the illumination-angle-dependent absorptance in cavity-based superconducting-nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) designs. Niobium-nitride stripes based on dimensions of conventional SNSPDs and integrated with ~ quarter-wavelength hydrogensilsesquioxane-filled nano-optical cavities and covered by a thin gold film acting as a reflector were illuminated from below by p-polarized light in this study. The numerical results were compared to results from complementary transfer-matrix-method calculations on composite layers made of analogous film-stacks. T...

Understanding the Sun has challenged people since ancient times. Mythology from the Greek, Inuit, and Inca cultures attempted to explain the daily appearance and nightly disappearance of the Sun by relating it to a chariot being chased across the sky. While people no longer believe the Sun is a chariot racing across the sky, teachers are still…

This article presents an art project designed for upper-elementary students to (1) imagine visual differences in the sun's appearance during the four seasons; (2) develop ideas for visually translating their personal experiences regarding the seasons to their sun drawings; (3) create four distinctive seasonal suns using colors and imagery to…

the proximal end of the collection optics into the first end of the input fibre, each collector element having a principal axis for the collection of light defining an optical axis of the collector element. The optical axes of the collector elements are arranged in a radially outward pointing multi......Source: EP2426402A The invention relates to a fibre illumination module and system for the collection and delivery of daylight for illumination purposes. The fibre illumination module comprises a plurality of collector elements, each collector element comprising an input fibre having a first end...... and a second end, and a collection optics, the collection optics being configured to receive light incident on a distal end of the collection optics, to transfer at least partially the incident light to a proximal end of the collection optics, and to couple at least partially the transferred light from...

The present invention relates to an area illumination light source comprising a plurality of individual OLED panels. The individual OLED panels are configured in a physically modular fashion. Each OLED panel comprising a plurality of OLED devices. Each OLED panel comprises a first electrode and a second electrode such that the power being supplied to each individual OLED panel may be varied independently. A power supply unit capable of delivering varying levels of voltage simultaneously to the first and second electrodes of each of the individual OLED panels is also provided. The area illumination light source also comprises a mount within which the OLED panels are arrayed.

We demonstrate the possibility to switch the z-polarization component of the illumination in the vicinity of the focus of high-NA objective lenses by applying radially and azimuthally polarized incident light. The influence of the field distribution on nonlinear effects was first investigated by the means of simulations. These were performed for high-NA objective lenses commonly used in nonlinear microscopy. Special attention is paid to the influence of the polarization of the incoming field. For linearly, circularly and radially polarized light a considerable polarization component in z-direction is generated by high NA focusing. Azimuthal polarization is an exceptional case: even for strong focusing no z-component arises. Furthermore, the influence of the input polarization on the intensity contributing to the nonlinear signal generation was computed. No distinct difference between comparable input polarization states was found for chosen thresholds of nonlinear signal generation. Differences in signal generation for radially and azimuthally polarized vortex beams were experimentally evaluated in native collagen tissue (porcine cornea). The findings are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions and display the possibility to probe the molecular orientation along the optical axis of samples with known nonlinear properties. The combination of simulations regarding the nonlinear response of materials and experiments with different sample orientations and present or non present z-polarization could help to increase the understanding of nonlinear signal formation in yet unstudied materials. PMID:25071961

There are two sun-tracking methods widely used for the heliostat, which are conventional Azimuth-Elevation and revolutionary Spinning-Elevation methods. Following the previous study to compare the range of motion, a comparison study in optical efficiency of heliostat field for the two methods is further explored in this paper. A special algorithm using ray-tracing technique has also been developed to simulate the optical efficiency of heliostat field for both sun-tracking methods in different...

We report the finding of an azimuthal dynamo wave of a low-order (m=1) mode in direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent convection in spherical shells. Such waves are predicted by mean field dynamo theory and have been obtained previously in mean-field models. Observational results both from photometry and Doppler imaging have revealed persistent drifts of spots for several rapidly rotating stars, but, although an azimuthal dynamo wave has been proposed as a possible mechanism responsible for this behavior, it has been judged as unlikely, as practical evidence for such waves from DNS has been lacking. The large-scale magnetic field in our DNS, which is due to self-consistent dynamo action, is dominated by a retrograde m=1 mode. Its pattern speed is nearly independent of latitude and does not reflect the speed of the differential rotation at any depth. The extrema of magnetic m=1 structures coincide reasonably with the maxima of m=2 structures of the temperature. These results provide direct support for...

Let f be a differentiable function on the real line, and let P\\inG_{f}^{C}= all points not on the graph of f. We say that the illumination index of P, denoted by I_{f}(P), is k if there are k distinct tangents to the graph of f which pass through P. In section 2 we prove results about the illumination index of f with f" (x)\\geq 0 on \\Re. In particular, suppose that y=L_1(x) and y=L_2(x) are distinct oblique asymptotes of f and let P=(s,t)\\in G_{f}^{C}. If max(L_1(s),L_2(s))

The present invention relates to an illumination control system comprising a plurality of outdoor luminaries and a motorized service vehicle. Each luminaire comprises a controllable light source producing a light illuminance. The motorized service vehicle comprises a light sensor configured...... to detect the light illuminance generated by the controllable light source at the motorized service vehicle. The motorized service vehicle computes light illuminance data based on the detected light illuminance and transmits these to the outdoor luminaire through a wireless communication link or stores...... the light illuminance data on a data recording device of the motorized service vehicle. The outdoor luminaire receives may use the light illuminance data to set or adjust a light illuminance of the controllable light source....

Full Text Available Azimuth resolution of airborne stripmap synthetic aperture radar (SAR is restricted by the azimuth antenna size. Conventionally, a higher azimuth resolution should be achieved by employing alternate modes that steer the beam in azimuth to enlarge the synthetic antenna aperture. However, if a data set of a certain region, consisting of multiple tracks of airborne stripmap SAR data, is available, the azimuth resolution of specific small region of interest (ROI can be conveniently improved by a novel azimuth super-resolution method as introduced by this paper. The proposed azimuth super-resolution method synthesize the azimuth bandwidth of the data selected from multiple discontinuous tracks and contributes to a magnifier-like function with which the ROI can be further zoomed in with a higher azimuth resolution than that of the original stripmap images. Detailed derivation of the azimuth super-resolution method, including the steps of two-dimensional dechirping, residual video phase (RVP removal, data stitching and data correction, is provided. The restrictions of the proposed method are also discussed. Lastly, the presented approach is evaluated via both the single- and multi-target computer simulations.

Azimuth resolution of airborne stripmap synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is restricted by the azimuth antenna size. Conventionally, a higher azimuth resolution should be achieved by employing alternate modes that steer the beam in azimuth to enlarge the synthetic antenna aperture. However, if a data set of a certain region, consisting of multiple tracks of airborne stripmap SAR data, is available, the azimuth resolution of specific small region of interest (ROI) can be conveniently improved by a novel azimuth super-resolution method as introduced by this paper. The proposed azimuth super-resolution method synthesize the azimuth bandwidth of the data selected from multiple discontinuous tracks and contributes to a magnifier-like function with which the ROI can be further zoomed in with a higher azimuth resolution than that of the original stripmap images. Detailed derivation of the azimuth super-resolution method, including the steps of two-dimensional dechirping, residual video phase (RVP) removal, data stitching and data correction, is provided. The restrictions of the proposed method are also discussed. Lastly, the presented approach is evaluated via both the single- and multi-target computer simulations.

We consider a shallow, two-dimensional flow of a liquid in which the radial and the azimuthal dynamics are coupled to each other. The steady and radial background flow of this system creates an axially symmetric circular hydraulic jump. On this background we apply time-dependent perturbations of the matter flow rate and the azimuthal flow velocity, with the latter strongly localized at the hydraulic jump. The perturbed variables depend spatially on both the radial and azimuthal coordinates. Linearization of the perturbations gives a coupled system of wave equations. The characteristic equations extracted from these wave equations show that under a marginally stable condition a spontaneous breaking of axial symmetry occurs at the position of the hydraulic jump. Departure from the marginal stability shows further that a linear instability develops in the azimuthal direction, resulting in an azimuthal transport of liquid at the hydraulic jump. The time for the growth of azimuthal instability is scaled by viscosi...

Full Text Available This paper describes the high precision digital sun sensor under development at the University of Naples. The sensor determines the sun line orientation in the sensor frame from the measurement of the sun position on the focal plane. It exploits CMOS technology and an original optical head design with multiple apertures. This allows simultaneous multiple acquisitions of the sun as spots on the focal plane. The sensor can be operated either with a fixed or a variable number of sun spots, depending on the required field of view and sun-line measurement precision. Multiple acquisitions are averaged by using techniques which minimize the computational load to extract the sun line orientation with high precision. Accuracy and computational efficiency are also improved thanks to an original design of the calibration function relying on neural networks. Extensive test campaigns are carried out using a laboratory test facility reproducing sun spectrum, apparent size and distance, and variable illumination directions. Test results validate the sensor concept, confirming the precision improvement achievable with multiple apertures, and sensor operation with a variable number of sun spots. Specifically, the sensor provides accuracy and precision in the order of 1 arcmin and 1 arcsec, respectively.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Research Support Instruments, Inc. (RSI) proposes the Gyroscopic Inertial Micro-Balance Azimuth Locator (GIMBAL) program to use an innovative encapsulated spinning...

Dijet azimuthal decorrelations are investigated in this report. We present a study on how well the event generators PYTHIA, HERWIG and HERWIG+JIMMY describe some of the recent measurements on dijet azimuthal decorrelations made by D0. We predict the correlations in the azimuthal angle between the two largest transverse momentum jets in the central rapidity for LHC inclusive dijet event samples. Reconstructed dijet azimuthal decorrelation distributions for simulated jet events at ATLAS (Rome samples) are shown to reproduce the MC event generator predictions.

Full Text Available Migrating eastern North American monarch butterflies use a time-compensated sun compass to adjust their flight to the southwest direction. Although the antennal genetic circadian clock and the azimuth of the sun are instrumental for proper function of the compass, it is unclear how these signals are represented on a neuronal level and how they are integrated to produce flight control. To address these questions, we constructed a receptive field model of the compound eye that encodes the solar azimuth. We then derived a neural circuit model that integrates azimuthal and circadian signals to correct flight direction. The model demonstrates an integration mechanism, which produces robust trajectories reaching the southwest regardless of the time of day and includes a configuration for remigration. Comparison of model simulations with flight trajectories of butterflies in a flight simulator shows analogous behaviors and affirms the prediction that midday is the optimal time for migratory flight.

This paper describes using a MET-based low-noise angular motion sensor to precisely determine azimuth direction in a dynamic-scheme method of measuring Earth's rotation velocity vector. The scheme includes installing a sensor on a rotating platform so that it could scan a space and seek for the position of highest Earth's rotation vector projection on its axis. This method is very efficient provided a low-noise sensor is used. We take a low-cost angular sensor based on MET (molecular electronic transduction) technology. Sensors of this kind were originally developed for the seismic activity monitoring and are well-known for very good noise performance and high sensitivity. This approach, combined with use of special signal processing algorithms, allowed for reaching the accuracy of 0.07° for a measurement time of 200 seconds.

Solving the global illumination problem is equivalent to determining the intensity of every wavelength of light in all directions at every point in a given scene. The complexity of the problem has led researchers to use approximation methods for solving the problem on serial computers. Rather than using an approximation method, such as backward ray tracing or radiosity, the authors have chosen to solve the Rendering Equation by direct simulation of light transport from the light sources. This paper presents an algorithm that solves the Rendering Equation to any desired accuracy, and can be run in parallel on distributed memory or shared memory computer systems with excellent scaling properties. It appears superior in both speed and physical correctness to recent published methods involving bidirectional ray tracing or hybrid treatments of diffuse and specular surfaces. Like progressive radiosity methods, it dynamically refines the geometry decomposition where required, but does so without the excessive storage requirements for ray histories. The algorithm, called Photon, produces a scene which converges to the global illumination solution. This amounts to a huge task for a 1997-vintage serial computer, but using the power of a parallel supercomputer significantly reduces the time required to generate a solution. Currently, Photon can be run on most parallel environments from a shared memory multiprocessor to a parallel supercomputer, as well as on clusters of heterogeneous workstations.

Sun-Earth Day is a well-coordinated series of programs, resources and events under a unique yearly theme highlighting the fundamentals of heliophysics research and missions. A menu of activities, conducted throughout the year, inspire and educate participants. Sun-Earth Day itself can vary in date, but usually is identified by a celebration on or near the spring equinox. Through the Sun-Earth Day framework we have been able to offer a series of coordinated events that promote and highlight the Sun, its connection to Earth and the other planets. Sun-Earth Day events are hosted by educators, museums, amateur astronomers and scientists and occur at schools, community groups, parks, planetaria and science centers around the globe. Sun-Earth Day raises the awareness and knowledge of formal and informal education audiences concerning space weather and heliophysics. By building on the success of Sun-Earth Day yearly celebrations, we seek to affect people of all backgrounds and ages with the wonders of heliophysics science, discovery, and exploration in ways that are both tangible and meaningful to their lives.

We analyze the method for calculation of a coefficient of jet azimuthal anisotropy without reconstruction of the nuclear reaction plane considering the higher order correlators between the azimuthal position of jet axis and the angles of particles not incorporated in the jet. The reliability of this technique in the real physical situation under LHC conditions is illustrated.

Azimuthal correlations are a powerful tool to probe the properties and the evolution of the collision system. In this proceedings, we will review the recent azimuthal correlation measurements from ALICE at the LHC. The comparison to other experimental measurements and various theoretical calculations will be discussed as well.

In this presentation we briefly describe the Sun through large number of illustrations and pictures of the Sun taken from early times to the present day space missions. The importance of the study of the Sun is emphasized as it is the nearest star which presents unparallelled views of surface details and numerous phenomena. Our Sun offers a unique celestial laboratory where a large variety of phenomena take place, ranging in temporal domain from a few milliseconds to several decades, in spatial domain from a few hundred kilometers to thousands of kilometers, and in the temperature domain from a few thousand degrees to several million degrees. Its mass motion ranges from thousandths to thousands of kilometers per second. Such an object provides us with a unique laboratory to study the state of matter in the Universe. The existing solar ground-based and space missions have already revealed several mysteries of the outer environment of our Sun and much more is going to come in the near future from planned new sophisticated ground-based solar telescopes and Space missions. The new technique of helioseismology has unravelled many secrets of the solar interior and has put the Standard Solar Model (SSM) on firm footing. The long-standing problem of solar neutrinos has been recently sorted out, and even the ‘back side’ view of the Sun can be seen using the technique of holographic helioseismology.

Thus the Sun forms the basis for life on Earth via the black body radiation it emits. The Sun also emits mass in the form of the solar wind and the coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Mass emission also occurs in the form of solar energetic particles (SEPs), which happens during CMEs and solar flares. Both the mass and electromagnetic energy output of the Sun vary over a wide range of time scales, thus introducing disturbances on the space environment that extends from the Sun through the entire heliosphere including the magnetospheres and ionospheres of planets and moons of the solar system. Although our habitat is located in the neutral atmosphere of Earth, we are intimately connected to the non-neutral space environment starting from the ionosphere to the magnetosphere and to the vast interplanetary space. The variability of the solar mass emissions results in the interaction between the solar wind plasma and the magnetospheric plasma leading to huge disturbances in the geospace. The Sun ionizes our atmosphere and creates the ionosphere. The ionosphere can be severely disturbed by the transient energy input from solar flares and the solar wind during geomagnetic storms. The complex interplay between Earth's magnetic field and the solar magnetic field carried by the solar wind presents varying conditions that are both beneficial and hazardous to life on earth. This seminar presents some of the key aspects of this Sun-Earth connection that we have learned since the birth of space science as a scientific discipline some half a century ago.

Azimuth-elevation and tilt-roll tracking mechanism are among the most commonly used sun-tracking methods for aiming the solar collector towards the sun at all times. It has been many decades that each of these two sun-tracking methods has its own specific sun-tracking formula and they are not interrelated. In this paper, the most general form of sun-tracking formula that embraces all the possible on-axis tracking methods is presented. The general sun-tracking formula not only can provide a general mathematical solution, but more significantly it can improve the sun-tracking accuracy by tackling the installation error of the solar collector. (author)

For fiber-fed spectrographs with a stable external wavelength source, scrambling properties of optical fibers and, homogeneity and stability of the instrument illumination are important for the accuracy of radial-velocimetry. Optical cylindric fibers are known to have good azimuthal scrambling. In contrast, the radial one is not perfect. In order to improve the scrambling ability of the fiber and to stabilize the illumination, optical double scrambler are usually coupled to the fibers. Despite that, our experience on SOPHIE and HARPS has lead to identified remaining radial-velocity limitations due to the non-uniform illumination of the spectrograph. We conducted tests on SOPHIE with telescope vignetting, seeing variation and centering errors on the fiber entrance. We simulated the light path through the instrument in order to explain the radial velocity variation obtained with our tests. We then identified the illumination stability and uniformity has a critical point for the extremely high-precision radial v...

This innovation is small, lightweight, and consumes very little electricity as it measures the solar energy attenuated by gases and aerosol particles in the atmosphere. A Sun photometer is commonly used on the Earth's surface, as well as on aircraft, to determine the solar energy attenuated by aerosol particles in the atmosphere and their distribution of sizes. This information is used to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of gases and aerosols in the atmosphere, as well as their distribution sizes. The design for this Sun photometer uses a combination of unique optics and a charge coupled device (CCD) array to eliminate moving parts and make the instrument more reliable. It could be selfcalibrating throughout the year. Data products would be down-welling flux, the direct-diffuse flux ratio, column abundance of gas phase constituents, aerosol optical depth at multiple-wavelengths, phase functions, cloud statistics, and an estimate of the representative size of atmospheric particles. These measurements can be used to obtain an estimate of aerosol size distribution, refractive index, and particle shape. Incident light is received at a light-reflecting (inner) surface, which is a truncated paraboloid. Light arriving from a hemispheric field of view (solid angle 2 steradians) enters the reflecting optic at an entrance aperture at, or adjacent to, the focus of the paraboloid, and is captured by the optic. Most of this light is reflected from an inner surface. The light proceeds substantially parallel to the paraboloid axis, and is detected by an array detector located near an exit aperture. Each of the entrance and exit apertures is formed by the intersection of the paraboloid with a plane substantially perpendicular to the paraboloid axis. Incident (non-reflected) light from a source of limited extent (the Sun) illuminates a limited area on the detector array. Both direct and diffuse illumination may be reflected, or not reflected, before being received on

Full Text Available Purpose: As the initial point of methodological research the author defines understanding of the essence of value azimuths (orientation, benchmarks in the formation of global education policy seen as a position on the decisive role of consolidation of efforts of supranational structures of the world, civil community in its global dimension, teachers’ associations and educational institutions of different levels in strengthening social and axiological ​​and personality-related and axiological factors of modernization of education as a strategic resource of socio-economic and cultural development of countries, an important lever of civilization development. Methods: In the article there has been used the method of terminological analysis to determine the essential content of the concepts of «value» and «ideal» in projections of development global education policy; the method of theoretical and comparative analysis to review the works of scientists on problems of shaping the global value-based measurements of educational policy. Results: The article presents implications made from the author’s conclusions regarding the content of the concepts of «value» and the «ideal» in projections of the global educational policy. It has been ascertained that the essential characteristics of the concept of «value» are as follows: 1 those are to satisfy the interests and needs of the individual; 2 specific individual reality whose essence lies in its positive significance; 3 «marker» of particular significance of things, processes, ideas for the life of the person; 4 what affects motivation and choice of modes of behavior of man. On the grounds that the term «ideal» denotes excellence, the perfect model, the ultimate goal of aspirations, activities, it has been found that the formation of modes of action, in particular, in the sphere of planning and implementing the global education policy, as far as the ideal is concerned, is a specific

The two particle azimuthal correlations are observed but the azimuthal structure seems to be of stochastic nature.no jet-like structure was observed.And a new method is used to study the azimuthal substructure.

The Photoelectric Rotating Slit Elevation and Azimuth Sensor (PERSEAS) measures the azimuth and elevation of the line of sight to a target reflecting or emitting radiation in the 0.4- tol.1-micro portion of the spectrum. Angular field of view is 360 degrees in azimuth and 30 degrees in elevation. Eight stationary lenses are used with rotating fiber-optics slits and silicon photodiode detectors to produce electrical pulses which are time related to target angular coordinates. Data rate is one line-of-sight measurement per 2.5 msec. Accuracy is better than 1 mrad.

A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image is produced by using all phase histories of a set of phase histories to produce a first pixel array having a first azimuth resolution, and using less than all phase histories of the set to produce a second pixel array having a second azimuth resolution that is coarser than the first azimuth resolution. The first and second pixel arrays are combined to produce a third pixel array defining a desired SAR image that shows distinct shadows of moving objects while preserving detail in stationary background clutter.

The job of an array illuminator is to provide an array of optical gates or smart pixels with photon power or with synchronous clock signals. So far it has been common to take the power from one big laser and distribute it to perhaps a million gates. An obvious alternative is to assign one private small source to each gate. We favor an in-between approach: a few medium-size sources share the job of providing photons. This hybrid approach has several advantages, such as better homogeneity, less coherent noise, and a distributed risk of source failure. We propose several setups and present some experimental results. Our concept calls for an array of incoherent point sources. We simulate such an array experimentally with a single source, which is virtually expanded into a source array by grating diffraction. Ordinarily these virtual sources are mutually coherent, which is undesirable for our aims. We destroy the mutual coherence by moving the grating during the photographic recording of the output array.

We consider the image reconstruction problem for optical tomography with structured illumination. A fast image reconstruction algorithm is proposed that reduces the required number of measurements of the optical field compared to methods that utilize point-source illumination. The results are illustrated with numerical simulations.

This article describes and classifies various approaches for solving the global illumination problem. The classification aims to show the similarities between different types of algorithms. We introduce the concept of Light Manager, as a central element and mediator between illumination algorithms in a heterogeneous environment of a graphical system. We present results and analysis of the implementation of the described ideas.

An illuminated push-button switch is described. It is characterized by the fact that is consists of a switch group, an operator button opening and closing the switch group, and a light-emitting element which illuminates the face of the operator button.

Full Text Available In this brief note, the implications of a condensed Sun will be examined. A celestial body composed of liquid metallic hydrogen brings great promise to astronomy, relative to understanding thermal emission and solar structure. At the same time, as an incom- pressible liquid, a condensed Sun calls into question virtually everything which is cur- rently believed with respect to the evolution and nature of the stars. Should the Sun be condensed, then neutron stars and white dwarfs will fail to reach the enormous densities they are currently believed to possess. Much of cosmology also falls into question, as the incompressibility of matter curtails any thought that a primordial atom once existed. Aging stars can no longer collapse and black holes will know no formative mechanism. A condensed Sun also hints that great strides must still be made in understanding the nature of liquids. The Sun has revealed that liquids possess a much greater potential for lattice order than previously believed. In addition, lessons may be gained with regards to the synthesis of liquid metallic hydrogen and the use of condensed matter as the basis for initiating fusion on Earth.

The several computational approaches to providing the local azimuth and elevation angles of the Sun as a function of local time and then the utilization of the most appropriate method in the PDC-1 microprocessor are presented. The full algorithm, the FORTRAN form, is felt to be very useful in any kind or size of computer. It was used in the PDC-1 unit to generate efficient code for the microprocessor with its floating point arithmetic chip. The balance of the presentation consists of a brief discussion of the tracking requirements for PPDC-1, the planetary motion equations from the first to the final version, and the local azimuth-elevation geometry.

Magnetohydrodynamics of the Sun is a completely new up-to-date rewrite from scratch of the 1982 book Solar Magnetohydrodynamics, taking account of enormous advances in understanding since that date. It describes the subtle and complex interaction between the Sun's plasma atmosphere and its magnetic field, which is responsible for many fascinating dynamic phenomena. Chapters cover the generation of the Sun's magnetic field by dynamo action, magnetoconvection and the nature of photospheric flux tubes such as sunspots, the heating of the outer atmosphere by waves or reconnection, the structure of prominences, the nature of eruptive instability and magnetic reconnection in solar flares and coronal mass ejections, and the acceleration of the solar wind by reconnection or wave-turbulence. It is essential reading for graduate students and researchers in solar physics and related fields of astronomy, plasma physics and fluid dynamics. Problem sets and other resources are available at www.cambridge.org/9780521854719.

The Sun's supergranulation refers to a physical pattern covering the surface of the quiet Sun with a typical horizontal scale of approximately 30000km. Its most noticeable observable signature is as a fluctuating velocity field whose components are mostly horizontal. Supergranulation was discovered more than fifty years ago, however explaining why and how it originates still represents one of the main challenges of modern solar physics. A lot of work has been devoted to the subject over the years, but observational constraints, conceptual difficulties and numerical limitations have all concurred to prevent a detailed understanding of the supergranulation phenomenon so far. With the advent of 21st century supercomputing resources and the availability of unprecedented high-resolution observations of the Sun, the solar community has now reached a stage at which key progress can be made on this question. A unifying strategy between observations and modeling is more than ever required for this to be possible. The ...

The Sun is enveloped by a hot, tenuous million-degree corona that expands to create a continuous solar wind that sweeps past all the planets and fills the heliosphere. The solar wind is modulated by strong gusts that are initiated by powerful explosions on the Sun, including solar flares and coronal mass ejections. This dynamic, invisible outer atmosphere of the Sun is currently under observation with the soft X-ray telescope aboard the Yohkoh spacecraft, whose results are presented. We also show observations from the Ulysses spacecraft that is now passing over the solar pole, sampling the solar wind in this region for the first time. Two other spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, have recently detected the outer edge of the invisible heliosphere, roughly halfway to the nearest star. Magnetic solar activity, the total radiative output from the Sun, and the Earth's mean global surface temperature all vary with the 11-year sunspot cycle in which the total number of sunspots varies from a maximum to a minimum and back to a maximum again in about 11 years. The terrestrial magnetic field hollows out a protective magnetic cavity, called the magnetosphere, within the solar wind. This protection is incomplete, however, so the Sun feeds an unseen world of high-speed particles and magnetic fields that encircle the Earth in space. These particles endanger spacecraft and astronauts, and also produce terrestrial aurorae. An international flotilla of spacecraft is now sampling the weak points in this magnetic defense. Similar spacecraft have also discovered a new radiation belt, in addition to the familiar Van Allen belts, except fed by interstellar ions instead of electrons and protons from the Sun.

The 2.1-m Otto Struve Telescope, world's second largest in 1939, today has modern motion control and superb tracking, yet the 19-m-diameter Art Deco dome has resisted many attempts to record its azimuth electronically. Demonstrated in January 2016, a small tactical-grade fiber-optic gyro located anywhere on the rotating structure, aided by a few fiducial points to zero gyro drift, adequately locates the azimuth. The cost of a gyro is practically independent of dome size, offering an economical solution for large domes that cannot be easily encoded with conventional systems. The 100-Hz sampling is capable of revealing anomalies in the rotation rate, valuable for preventive maintenance on any dome. I describe software methods and time series analysis to integrate angular velocity to dome azimuth; transformation of telescope hour angle and declination into required dome azimuth, using a formula that accounts for a cross-axis mount inside an offset dome; and test results.

Our rapidly industrialising world has an insatiable hunger for energy, and conventional sources are struggling to meet demand. Oil is running out, coal is damaging our climate, many nations are abandoning nuclear, yet solar, wind and water will never be a complete replacement. The solution, says Daniel Clery in this deeply researched and revelatory book, is to be found in the original energy source: the Sun itself. There, at its centre, the fusion of 630 million tonnes of hydrogen every second generates an unfathomable amount of energy. By replicating even a tiny piece of the Sun's power

As follows from dynamical studies, in the course of evolution, most near-Earth objects reach orbits with small perihelion distances. Changes of the asteroids in the vicinity of the Sun should play a key role in forming the physical properties, size distribution, and dynamical features of the near-Earth objects. Only seven of the discovered asteroids are currently moving along orbits with perihelion distances q orbits farther from the Sun. In this study, we found asteroids that have been recently orbiting with perihelion distances q orbits for hundreds to tens of thousands of years. To carry out astrophysical observations of such objects is a high priority.

The sun is not a-bed, when I At night upon my pillow lie; Stilt round the earth his Way he takes, And morning after morning makes. White here at home, in shining day, We round the sunny garden play, Each tittle Indian sleepy - head Is being kissed and put to bed. And When at eve I rise from tea, Day dawns beyond the Atlantic Sea; And all the children in the West Are getting up and being dressed.The SUN'S TRAVELS@Robert Louis Stevenson

The azimuthal anisotropy of high-pt particle production in non-central heavy ion collisions is among the most promising observables of partonic energy loss in an azimuthally non-symmetric volume of quark-gluon plasma. We discuss the implications of nuclear geometry for the models of partonic energy loss in the context of recent RHIC data and consequences for observation of jet quenching at the LHC.

The out-of-plane squeeze-out effect in relativistic heavy ion collisions is used to estimate the reaction plane by performing a modified transverse momentum analysis. A technique for investigating the azimuthal correlation between the out-of-plane squeeze-out and directed in-plane flow is described. A clear signature of the azimuthal correlation is evidenced in the 600 A MeV Au + Au reaction from the quantum molecular dynamic model calculations.

A novel ambiguity suppression technique is proposed. Range ambiguities in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are eliminated with an azimuth filter after having applied an azimuth phase modulation to the transmitted pulses and a corresponding demodulation to the received pulses. The technique...... by the antenna elevation dimension. The fundamental antenna area constraint still applies, but the PRF can be chosen with more freedom. In addition to ambiguity suppression, potential applications include nadir return elimination and signal-to-noise ratio improvement....

Optical properties of the cirrus cloud ice crystals with preferred azimuthal orientation are required for current numerical models of the Earth's radiation balance. Retrieving the orientation distributions function of the crystals from a vertically pointing polarization lidar measuring the full Mueller matrix is a very complicated problem because of lake of information. Lidars with zenith scanning can be used only to retrieve the properties of horizontally oriented particles. The paper shows that if the particles have preferred azimuthal orientation, the polarization lidars with azimuthal scanning should be used. It is also shown that all the elements of the Mueller matrix give no extra information compare to the depolarization ratio. Optical properties of preferred azimuthal oriented hexagonal ice columns with size from 10 to 1000 μm for wavelengths of 0.355, 0.532 and 1.064 μm were collected as a data bank.

Full Text Available South Africa is blessed with some of the best quality solar radiation in the world. In the light of this many exciting opportunities exist to utilize the sun to its full potential in the design of energy efficient buildings. Passive solar buildings...

The Sun Ultra 5 is a 64-bit personal computer based on the UltraSPARC microprocessor line at a low price. The Ultra 5 has been declined in several variants: thus, some models have a processor with less cache memory to further decrease the price of the computer.

Special variants of the Novaya Zemlya effect may arise from localized temperature inversions that follow the height profile of hills or mountains. Rather than following its natural path, the rising or setting Sun may, under such circumstances, appear to slide along a distant mountain slope. We found

This is the story of Go Sun Smart, a worksite wellness program endorsed by the North American Ski Area Association and funded by the National Cancer Institute. Between 2000 and 2002 we designed and implemented a large-scale worksite intervention at over 300 ski resorts in North America with the objective of reducing ski area employees and guests…

This Second Edition of Sun, Earth and Sky updates the popular text by providing comprehensive accounts of the most recent discoveries made by five modern solar spacecraft during the past decade. Their instruments have used sound waves to peer deep into the Sun’s inner regions and measure the temperature of its central nuclear reactor, and extended our gaze far from the visible Sun to record energetic outbursts that threaten Earth. Breakthrough observations with the underground Sudbury Neutrino Observatory are also included, which explain the new physics of ghostly neutrinos and solve the problematic mismatch between the predicted and observed amounts of solar neutrinos. This new edition of Sun, Earth and Sky also describes our recent understanding of how the Sun’s outer atmosphere is heated to a million degrees, and just where the Sun’s continuous winds come from. As humans we are more intimately linked with our life-sustaining Sun than with any other astronomical object, and the new edition therefore p...

The Sun's atmosphere is a highly structured but dynamic place, dominated by the solar magnetic field. Hot charged gas (plasma) is trapped on lines of magnetic force that can snap like an elastic band, propelling giant clouds of material out into space. A range of ground-based and space-based solar telescopes observe these eruptions, particularly…

Face recognition under uncontrolled illumination conditions is still considered an unsolved problem. In order to correct for these illumination conditions, we propose a virtual illumination grid (VIG) approach to model the unknown illumination conditions. Furthermore, we use coupled subspace models

The considerations which formulate the specifications for a laser illuminator are explained, using the example of an underwater object. Depending on the parameters which define the scenario, widely varying laser requirements result.

Full Text Available Face Recognition (FR under various illuminations is very challenging. Normalization technique is useful for removing the dimness and shadow from the facial image which reduces the effect of illumination variations still retaining the necessary information of the face. The robust local feature extractor which is the gray-scale invariant texture called Local Binary Pattern (LBP is helpful for feature extraction. K-Nearest Neighbor classifier is utilized for the purpose of classification and to match the face images from the database. Experimental results were based on Yale-B database with three different sub categories. The proposed method has been tested to robust face recognition in various illumination conditions. Extensive experiment shows that the proposed system can achieve very encouraging performance in various illumination environments.

To return to the ecologically optimal zone of the beach, the sandhopper Talitrus saltator (Montagu) maintains a constant sea-land direction based on the sun and moon compasses. In this study, we investigated the role of the skylight gradient of luminance in sun and moon identification under natural and artificial conditions of illumination. Clock-shifted (inverted) sandhoppers tested under the sun (during their subjective night) and under the full moon (during their subjective day) exhibit orientation in accordance with correct identification of the sun and the moon at night. Tested in artificial conditions of illumination at night without the artificial gradient of luminance, the artificial astronomical cue is identified as the moon even when the conditions of illumination allow sun compass orientation during the day. When the artificial gradient of luminance is added, the artificial astronomical cue is identified as the sun. The role of the sky gradient of luminance in sun and moon identification is discussed on the basis of present and past findings.

Full Text Available In this paper, models are build to evaluate the impact of the forest on the valley’s illumination. Based on the assumes that all the light reach the ground comes from the diffuse reflection which comes from the sun directly and from the diffuse reflection of other points, One model is build to consider the impact of time and latitude on the direction of the sunlight. So we can get the direction of the sunlight at different time and latitude through the model. Besides, this paper develops a illumination model to evaluate the intensity of illumination of the ground. Combining the models above, this paper get a complete model which can not only evaluate the overall light intensity of the valley but also convert the light intensity to the intensity of illumination. Simulation of the intensity illumination of some basic terrains and finally gives a comprehensive results which is practical and close to the common sense.

6639000 India Chennai 13.060 80.250 24 Population Country City Latitude Longitude 11680000 India Delhi 28.667 77.233 6833000 India Hyderabad 17.385...providing illumination levels for cities , the model now includes values for lunar illumination under clear or (partially) cloudy skies at ground level...function of population and distance (>10 km) from city center under clear and overcast conditions. A technical overview of the model, along with

This review is primarily directed to the question whether photometric solar analogues remain such when subjected to detailed spectroscopic analyses and interpreted with the help of internal stucture models. In other words, whether the physical parameters: mass, chemical composition, age (determining effective temperature and luminosity), chromospheric activity, equatorial rotation, lithium abundance, velocity fields etc., we derive from the spectral analysis of a photometric solar analogue, are really close to those of the Sun. We start from 109 photometric solar analogues extracted from different authors. The stars selected had to satisfy three conditions: i) their colour index (B-V) must be contained in the interval: Δ (B-V) = 0.59-0.69, ii) they must possess a trigonometric parallax, iii) they must have undergone a high resolution detailed spectroscopic analysis. First, this review presents photometric and spectrophotometric researches on solar analogues and recalls the pionneering work on these stars by the late Johannes Hardorp. After a brief discussion on low and high resolution spectroscopic researches, a comparison is made between effective temperatures as obtained, directly, from detailed spectral analyses and those obtained, indirectly, from different photometric relations. An interesting point in this review is the discussion on the tantalilizing value of the (B-V)solar of the Sun, and the presentation of a new reliable value of this index. A short restatement of the kinematic properties of the sample of solar analogues is also made. And, finally, the observational ( T eff, M bol) diagram, obtained with 99 of the initially presented 109 analogues, is compared to a theoretical ( T eff, M bol) diagram. This latter has been constructed with a grid of internal structure models for which, (very important for this investigation), the Sun was used as gauge. In analysing the position, with respect to the Sun, of each star we hoped to find a certain number of

In recent years, many volumetric illumination models have been proposed, which have the potential to simulate advanced lighting effects and thus support improved image comprehension. Although volume ray-casting is widely accepted as the volume rendering technique which achieves the highest image quality, so far no volumetric illumination algorithm has been designed to be directly incorporated into the ray-casting process. In this paper we propose image plane sweep volume illumination (IPSVI), which allows the integration of advanced illumination effects into a GPU-based volume ray-caster by exploiting the plane sweep paradigm. Thus, we are able to reduce the problem complexity and achieve interactive frame rates, while supporting scattering as well as shadowing. Since all illumination computations are performed directly within a single rendering pass, IPSVI does not require any preprocessing nor does it need to store intermediate results within an illumination volume. It therefore has a significantly lower memory footprint than other techniques. This makes IPSVI directly applicable to large data sets. Furthermore, the integration into a GPU-based ray-caster allows for high image quality as well as improved rendering performance by exploiting early ray termination. This paper discusses the theory behind IPSVI, describes its implementation, demonstrates its visual results and provides performance measurements.

This study characterizes the attitude of a satellite in order to obtain the optimum solar illumination on the face of a solar panel. While taking into consideration times of eclipse, a curve for the area exposed to the sun is derived.

Full Text Available Typically, the total amount of gases and particles in a column of atmosphere cannot be determined from measurements just at Earth's surface, by a single measurement essentially at the bottom of the atmosphere column. Balloons, airplanes, and rockets are all used to perform direct measurements in the atmosphere at altitudes up to and beyond the stratosphere. Satellite-based instruments provide global views, but it is difficult to infer surface and column distributions from space-based measurements, so such measurements must still be supplemented by ground-based measurements. Sun photometry is an important way of probing the atmosphere from the ground to measure the effects of the atmosphere on Sun radiation crossing through the atmosphere to Earth's surface. These indirect technique provide information about the entire atmosphere above the observer, not just the atmosphere that can be sampled directly close to Earth's surface.

Do you know how hot thesun is? There are no solidsor liquids on the sun. Why not? The temperature onoutside the sun is more than 10, 000℃, and that at the centre is about 20, 000, 000℃.The sun is so hot that all thesolids and all the liquids havebeen turned into gases.

Observational data, analytical models, and instrumentation used to study the sun and its evolution are detailed, and attention is given to techniques for converting solar energy to useful power on earth. The star ignited when the mutual gravitational attractions of dust and vapor in a primordial cloud in the Galaxy caused an in-rush of accelerating particles which eventually became dense enough to ignite. The heat grew until inward rushing matter was balanced by outward moving radiative forces. The planets formed from similar debris, and solar radiation is suggested to have triggered the chemical reactions giving rise to life on earth. Visual, spectroscopic, coronagraphic, and UV observations of the sun from the ground and from spacecraft, particularly Skylab, are described, together with features of the solar surface, magnetic field, sunspots, and coronal loops. Models for the processes that occur in the solar interior are explored, as are the causes of solar flares. Attention is given to solar cells, heliostat arrays, wind turbines, and water turbines as means to convert, either directly or indirectly, the earth-bound solar energy to electrical and thermal power. Finally, the life cycle of the sun, about 9 billion yr in duration, is summarized, noting the current status of midlife.

This paper applies plane parallel radiance transport techniques to scattering from vegetation. The leaves, stems, and branches are represented as a volume density of scattering surfaces, depending only on height and the vertical component of the surface normal. Ordinary differential equations are written for the multiply scattered radiance as a function of the height above the ground, with the sky radiance and ground reflectance as boundary conditions. They are solved using a two-pass integration scheme to unify the two-point boundary conditions, and Fourier series for the dependence on the azimuthal angle. The resulting radiance distribution is used to precompute diffuse and specular `ambient` shading tables, as a function of height and surface normal, to be used in rendering, together with a z-buffer shadow algorithm for direct solar illumination.

With the high population growth rate, especially in developing countries, and the scarcity of land resources, buildings are becoming so close to each other, depriving the lower floors and the alleys from sunlight and consequently causing health problems. Therefore, there is an urgent need for cost-effective efficient light redirecting panels that guide sun rays into those dim places. In this paper, we address this problem. A novel sine wave based panel is presented to redirect/diverge light downward and enhance the illumination level in those dark places. Simulation results show that the proposed panel improves the illuminance values by more than 200% and 400% in autumn and winter respectively, operates over wide solar altitude ranges, and redirects light efficiently. Experimental and simulation results are in good agreement.

We introduce partially-parity-time-symmetric (pPT-symmetric) azimuthal potentials composed from individual PT-symmetric cells located on a ring, where two azimuthal directions are nonequivalent in a sense that in such potentials excitations carrying topological dislo-cations exhibit different dynamics for different directions of energy circulation in the initial field distribution. Such non-conservative ratchet-like structures support rich families of stable vortex solitons in cubic nonlinear media, whose properties depend on the sign of the topological charge due to the nonequivalence of azimuthal directions. In contrast, oppositely charged vortex solitons remain equivalent in similar fully PT-symmetric potentials. The vortex solitons in the pPT- and PT-symmetric potentials are shown to feature qualitatively different internal current distributions, which are described by different discrete rotation symmetries of the intensity profiles.

A concept for a novel arc-field, illumination projection system, particularly for EUVL applications, is presented. This system consists of a light source, a collector, a fly-eye, and a condenser. The fly-eye has two reflectors. One of them is constructed with using arc-shaped, concave mirror elements, the other using many rectangular, concave mirror elements. Both elements are arranged closely side by side. All of the arc-shaped mirrors have a corresponding rectangular mirror on a one-to-one basis. Each rectangular mirror projects its corresponding arc-shaped mirror's images onto an arc projection field on the mask. As a consequence, all of incident rays on fly-eye reflector constructed by arc-shape mirror elements are gathered in the arc projection field. Currently, the main type of illumination system for EUVL is based on so-called 'Koehler-critical illumination,' which is not necessarily proper for a scanner system. Then this system adopts Koehler illumination. It is necessary for scanner illumination systems to have means for minute adjustments of its properties (e.g. irradiance distribution). Such adjustments means are presented.

We introduce the phenomenology of elliptic flow in nuclear collisions, and argue that its scaling across energies, rapidities and system sizes could be suggestive of a QCD-based rather than a hydrodynamical explanation. As a hypothesis for such an explanation, we show that the GLR equation develops unstable modes when the parton distribution function is generalized to depend on azimuthal angle. This generally means that the structure function acquires an azimuthal dependence. We argue that this process is a plausible alternative explanation for the origin of elliptic flow, one that naturally respects the scaling experimentally observed. (orig.)

We consider an ultra-relativistic particle travelling on-axis in an infinitely long cylindrical metallic beam pipe with azimuthally varying conductivity. A semi-analytical solution, obtained by applying approximate boundary conditions, predicts an image current distribution on the pipe walls practically independent of the azimuth, at least in the frequency range relevant for future machines such as the LHC. We discuss numerical simulations and bench measurements which confirm the theoretical predictions. Implications for the beam-induced ohmic losses in the copper coated, welded LHC beam screen are also addressed.

Detailed studies of the azimuthal dependence of the mean fragment and flow energies in the Au+Au and Xe+CsI systems are reported as a function of incident energy and centrality. Comparisons between data and model calculations show that the flow energy values along different azimuthal directions could be viewed as snapshots of the fireball expansion with different exposure times. For the same number of participating nucleons more transversally elongated participant shapes from the heavier system produce less collective transverse energy. Good agreement with BUU calculations is obtained for a soft nuclear equation of state.

Full Text Available We consider an ultrarelativistic particle traveling on axis in an infinitely long cylindrical metallic beam pipe with azimuthally varying conductivity. For a circular geometry, a semianalytical solution is obtained using the Green functions and applying approximate boundary conditions for conductors. The theory predicts an image current distribution on the pipe walls practically independent of the azimuth, at least in the frequency range relevant for future machines such as the LHC. Numerical electromagnetic simulations and bench measurements confirm the theoretical predictions. Implications for the beam-induced heating in the copper-coated, welded LHC beam screen are also addressed.

We consider the stationary magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) equilibrium equation for an axisymmetric plasma undergoing azimuthal rotations. The case of cylindrical symmetry is treated, and we present two semi-analytical solutions for the stationary MHD equilibrium equations, from which a number of physical properties of the magnetically confined plasma are derived.

Horizontal seismic data are utilized in a large number of Earth studies. Such work depends on the published orientations of the sensitive axes of seismic sensors relative to true North. These orientations can be estimated using a number of different techniques: SensOrLoc (Sensitivity, Orientation and Location), comparison to synthetics (Ekstrom and Busby, 2008), or by way of magnetic compass. Current methods for finding relative station azimuths are unable to do so with arbitrary precision quickly because of limitations in the algorithms (e.g. grid search methods). Furthermore, in order to determine instrument orientations during station visits, it is critical that any analysis software be easily run on a large number of different computer platforms and the results be obtained quickly while on site. We developed a new technique for estimating relative sensor azimuths by inverting for the orientation with the maximum correlation to a reference instrument, using a non-linear parameter estimation routine. By making use of overlapping windows, we are able to make multiple azimuth estimates, which helps to identify the confidence of our azimuth estimate, even when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is low. Finally, our algorithm has been written as a stand-alone, platform independent, Java software package with a graphical user interface for reading and selecting data segments to be analyzed.

The results on amplifying either radially or azimuthally polarized light with a fiber amplifier are presented. Experimental results reveal that more than 85% polarization purity can be retained at the output even with 40dB amplification, and that efficient conversion of the amplified light to linear polarization can be obtained.

We study the azimuthal angle decorrelation of forward jets in Deep Inelastic Scattering. We make predictions for this observable at HERA describing the high energy limit of the relevant scattering amplitudes with quasi-multi-Regge kinematics together with a collinearly improved evolution kernel for multiparton emissions. (orig.)

In ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions a new state of matter known as the strongly interacting quark-gluon plasma (sQGP) is produced. A key observable in the study of the sQGP is anisotropic azimuthal ow. The anisotropies are described by ow harmonics, vn. In this thesis, bias arising from non...

Observables of heavy-quark azimuthal correlations in heavy-ion collisions are a new and promising tool for the investigation of the in-medium energy loss. We explore the potential of these observables to discriminate the collisional and radiative contributions within a hybrid EPOS+MC@sHQ transport approach.

To counter the problem of acquiring and processing huge amounts of data for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) using traditional sampling techniques,a method for sparse SAR imaging with an optimized azimuthal aperture is presented.The equivalence of an azimuthal match filter and synthetic array beamforming is shown so that optimization of the azimuthal sparse aperture can be converted to optimization of synthetic array beamforming.The azimuthal sparse aperture,which is composed of a middle aperture and symmetrical bilateral apertures,can be obtained by optimization algorithms (density weighting and simulated annealing algorithms,respectively).Furthermore,sparse imaging of spectrum analysis SAR based on the optimized sparse aperture is achieved by padding zeros at null samplings and using a non-uniform Taylor window. Compared with traditional sampling,this method has the advantages of reducing the amount of sampling and alleviating the computational burden with acceptable image quality.Unlike periodic sparse sampling,the proposed method exhibits no image ghosts.The results obtained from airborne measurements demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.

This thesis addresses the development of a robust processing technique aimed at resolving and unmasking targets, in range and azimuth, embedded in the received signal of a single and monostatic rotating surveillance radar. The reason for the need of such technique is twofold. Firstly, there are

... degree. From the approach reference datum to the coverage limit, the PFE, PFN and CMN limits, expressed... runway centerline extended, by a factor of 1.2 for the PFE and PFN limits and to ±0.10 degree for the CMN... degree azimuth angles for the PFE, PFN and CMN limits. (iii) With elevation angle from +9 degrees to +15...

This thesis addresses the development of a robust processing technique aimed at resolving and unmasking targets, in range and azimuth, embedded in the received signal of a single and monostatic rotating surveillance radar. The reason for the need of such technique is twofold. Firstly, there are seve

Full Text Available Review of: Blackburn, Stuart H. 2010. The Sun Rises: A Shaman's Chant, Ritual Exchange and Fertility in the Apatani Valley. Leiden: Brill. xvii+401. Color and black and white photographs, maps. ISBN: 9789-0041-7578-5 (hardcover, 97USD. The Sun Rises is a model study contextualizing an oral narrative tradition in the social and ritual fabric of a remote community in northeast India. In many ways a companion volume to Himalayan Tribal Tales (Blackburn 2008, the text presents the first substantial translation of a key ritual text of the Apantani Valley dwellers in Arunachal Pradesh, located on the contested border between China (Tibet and India. The Apatani speak a Tibeto-Burman language, practice intensive rice agriculture in carefully terraced fields, and number about 35,000. Their clans populate several centuries-old villages. Until recently, they were separated from the lowlands of Assam and surrounded only by peoples practicing various forms of shifting agriculture. The valley dwellers have increasingly encountered modernization over the last few decades, including Indian and global popular culture, and Christianity. The heart of this book is a chant of nineteen segments.

InGaN/GaN-based solar cells with vertical-conduction feature on silicon substrates were fabricated by wafer bonding technique. The vertical solar cells with a metal reflector sandwiched between the GaN-based epitaxial layers and the Si substrate could increase the effective thickness of the absorption layer. Given that the thermally resistive sapphire substrates were replaced by the Si substrate with high thermal conductivity, the solar cells did not show degradation in power conversion efficiency (PCE) even when the solar concentrations were increased to 300 suns. The open circuit voltage increased from 1.90 V to 2.15 V and the fill factor increased from 0.55 to 0.58 when the concentrations were increased from 1 sun to 300 suns. With the 300-sunillumination, the PCE was enhanced by approximately 33% compared with the 1-sunillumination.

We demonstrate, in both two and three dimensions, how a self-guided beam in a non-Kerr medium is split into two beams on weak illumination. We also provide an elegant physical explanation that predicts the universal character of the observed phenomenon. Possible applications of our findings to guiding light with light are also discussed.

The Sun often exhibits outbursts, launching material from its surface in powerful releases of energy. Recent analysis of such an outburst captured on video by several Sun-monitoring spacecraft may help us understand the mechanisms that launch these eruptions.Many OutburstsSolar jets are elongated, transient structures that are thought to regularly release magnetic energy from the Sun, contributing to coronal heating and solar wind acceleration. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs), on the other hand, are enormous blob-like explosions, violently ejecting energy and mass from the Sun at incredible speeds.But could these two types of events actually be related? According to a team of scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China, they may well be. The team, led by Jiajia Liu, has analyzed observations of a coronal jet that they believe prompted the launch of a powerful CME.Observing an ExplosionGif of a movie of the CME, taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatorys Atmospheric Imaging Assembly at a wavelength of 304. The original movie can be found in the article. [Liu et al.]An army of spacecraft was on hand to witness the event on 15 Jan 2013 including the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). The instruments on board these observatories captured the drama on the northern limb of the Sun as, at 19:32 UT, a coronal jet formed. Just eight minutes later, a powerful CME was released from the same active region.The fact that the jet and CME occurred in the same place at roughly the same time suggests theyre related. But did the initial motions of the CME blob trigger the jet? Or did the jet trigger the CME?Tying It All TogetherIn a recently published study, Liu and collaborators analyzed the multi-wavelength observations of this event to find the heights and positions of the jet and CME. From this analysis, they determined that the coronal jet triggered the release

This paper is part of a series on the Azimuthally Symmetric Theory of Gravitation(ASTG).This theory is built on Laplace-Poisson's well known equation and it has been shown that the ASTG is capable of explaining,from a purely classical physics standpoint,the precession of the perihelion of solar planets as a consequence of the azimuthal symmetry emerging from the spin of the Sun.This symmetry has and must have an influence on the emergent gravitational field.We show herein that the emergent equations from the ASTG,under some critical conditions determined by the spin,do possess repulsive gravitational fields in the polar regions of the gravitating body in question.This places the ASTG on an interesting pedestal to infer the origins of outflows as a repulsive gravitational phenomenon.Outflows are a ubiquitous phenomenon found in star forming systems and their true origin is a question yet to be settled.Given the current thinking on their origin,the direction that the present paper takes is nothing short of an asymptotic break from conventional wisdom; at the very least,it is a complete paradigm shift because gravitation is not at all associated with this process,but rather it is thought to be an all-attractive force that only tries to squash matter together onto a single point.Additionally,we show that the emergent Azimuthally Symmetric Gravitational Field from the ASTG strongly suggests a solution to the supposed Radiation Problem that is thought to be faced by massive stars in their process of formation.That is,at～8-10 M⊙,radiation from the nascent star is expected to halt the accretion of matter.We show that in-falling material will fall onto the equatorial disk and from there,this material will be channeled onto the forming star via the equatorial plane,thus accretion of mass continues well past the value of～8-10 M⊙,albeit via the disk.Along the equatorial plane,the net force(with the radiation force included)on any material there-on right up to the

The blind structured illumination microscopy (SIM) strategy proposed in (Mudry et al., 1992) is drastically revisited in this paper, unveiling the mechanism that drives the super-resolution in the method. A much improved numerical implementation is also provided for the reconstruction problem under the image positivity constraint. This algorithm rests on a new preconditioned proximal iteration faster than existing solutions, paving the way to 3D and real-time 2D reconstruction.

Few questionnaires used in monitoring sun-related behavior have been tested for validity. We established criteria validity of a developed questionnaire for monitoring population sun-related behavior. During May-August 2013, 664 Danes wore a personal electronic UV-dosimeter for one week...... that measured the outdoor time and dose of erythemal UVR exposure. In the following week, they answered a questionnaire on their sun-related behavior in the measurement week. Outdoor time measured by dosimetry correlated strongly with both outdoor time and the developed exposure scale measured....... The weekly sunburn fraction correlated strongly with the number of ambient sun hours (r=0.73, p

The Messenger mission to Mercury opened a new window into the inner solar system. In 2008, this mission began a number of years of flybys, culminating in an orbital insertion around Mercury and producing unparalleled observations about this mysterious innermost planet. Mercury orbits so close to the Sun, from the point of view of Earth, that seeing it from the Earth against the Sun's glare is a great challenge. At the same time, the huge gravitational force of the Sun makes it a challenge to put a mission on Mercury without losing it into the Sun. Now, with heightened understanding of Mercury,

Convection in the solar interior is thought to comprise structures at a continuum of scales, from large to small. This conclusion emerges from phenomenological studies and numerical simulations though neither covers the proper range of dynamical parameters of solar convection. In the present work, imaging techniques of time-distance helioseismology applied to observational data reveal no long-range order in the convective motion. We conservatively bound the associated velocity magnitudes, as a function of depth and the spherical-harmonic degree l to be 20-100 times weaker than prevailing estimates within the wavenumber band l ux of a solar luminosity outwards? The Sun is seemingly a much faster rotator than previously thought, with advection dominated by Coriolis forces at scales l < 60.

2015 has been declared the year of light. Sunlight plays a major role in the world. From the sunbeams that heat our planet and feed our plants to the optical analysis of the sun or the modern use of sun particles in technologies, sunlight is everywhere and it is vital. This project aims to understand better the light of the Sun in a variety of fields. The experiments are carried out by students aged 15 to 20 in order to share their discoveries with Italian students from primary and secondary schools. The experiments will also be presented to a group of Danish students visiting our school in January. All experiments are carried out in English and involve teams of teachers. This project is 3 folds: part 1: Biological project = what are the mechanisms of photosynthesis? part 2: Optical project= what are the components of sunlight and how to use it? part 3: Technical project= how to use the energy of sunlight for modern devices? Photosynthesis project Biology and English Context:Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy, normally from the Sun, into chemical energy that can later fuel the organisms' activities. This chemical energy is stored in molecules which are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water. In most cases, oxygen is released as a waste product. Most plants perform photosynthesis. Photosynthesis maintains atmospheric oxygen levels and supplies all of the organic compounds and most of the energy necessary for life on Earth. Outcome: Our project consists in understanding the various steps of photosynthesis. Students will shoot a DVD of the experiments presenting the equipments required, the steps of the experiments and the results they have obtained for a better understanding of photosynthesis Digital pen project Electricity, Optics and English Context: Sunlight is a complex source of light based on white light that can be decomposed to explain light radiations or colours. This light is a precious source to create

This volume, together with its two companion volumes, originated in a study commis­ sioned by the United States National Academy of Sciences on behalf of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A committee composed of Tom Holzer, Dimitri Mihalas, Roger Ulrich and myself was asked to prepare a comprehensive review of current knowledge concerning the physics of the sun. We were fortunate in being able to persuade many distinguished scientists to gather their forces for the preparation of 21 separate chapters covering not only solar physics but also relevant areas of astrophysics and solar-terrestrial relations. It proved necessary to divide the chapters into three separate volumes that cover three different aspects of solar physics. Volumes 1 and 2 are concerned with 'The Solar Interior' and with 'The Solar Atmosphere'. This volume, devoted to 'Astrophysics and Solar-Terrestrial Relations', focuses on problems of solar physics from these two different but complementary perspectives. The emphasis thr...

This "designers' manual" is made during the TIDO-course AR0531 Innovation and Sustainability This manual will show how not to design with the Sun. By showing examples how buildings have failed that have not taken the Sun and its effects in consideration, one should get a clearer picture of how you

This "designers' manual" is made during the TIDO-course AR0531 Innovation and Sustainability This manual will show how not to design with the Sun. By showing examples how buildings have failed that have not taken the Sun and its effects in consideration, one should get a clearer picture of how you

A 10 inch laser illuminated flat panel Planar Optic Display (POD) screen has been constructed and tested. This POD screen technology is an entirely new concept in display technology. Although the initial display is flat and made of glass, this technology lends itself to applications where a plastic display might be wrapped around the viewer. The display screen is comprised of hundreds of planar optical waveguides where each glass waveguide represents a vertical line of resolution. A black cladding layer, having a lower index of refraction, is placed between each waveguide layer. Since the cladding makes the screen surface black, the contrast is high. The prototype display is 9 inches wide by 5 inches high and approximately I inch thick. A 3 milliwatt HeNe laser is used as the illumination source and a vector scanning technique is employed.

A hand portable, field-deployable thin-layer chromatography (TLC) unit and a hand portable, battery-operated unit for development, illumination, and data acquisition of the TLC plates contain many miniaturized features that permit a large number of samples to be processed efficiently. The TLC unit includes a solvent tank, a holder for TLC plates, and a variety of tool chambers for storing TLC plates, solvent, and pipettes. After processing in the TLC unit, a TLC plate is positioned in a collapsible illumination box, where the box and a CCD camera are optically aligned for optimal pixel resolution of the CCD images of the TLC plate. The TLC system includes an improved development chamber for chemical development of TLC plates that prevents solvent overflow.

Sun photometers are designed to measure direct solar irradiance and diffused sky radiance for the purpose of atmospheric parameters characterization. A sun photometer is usually calibrated by using a lamp-illuminated integrating sphere source for its band-averaged radiance responsivity, which normally has an uncertainty of 3%-5% at present. Considering the calibration coefficients may also change with time, a regular high precision calibration is important to maintain data quality. In this paper, a tunable-laser-based facility for spectral radiance responsivity calibration has been developed at the Key Laboratory of Optical Calibration and Characterization, Chinese Academy of Sciences. A reference standard radiance radiometer, calibrated against cryogenic radiometer, is used to determine the radiance from a laser-illuminated integrating sphere source. Spectral radiance responsivity of CIMEL CE318-2 sun photometer is calibrated using this new calibration system with a combined standard uncertainty of about 0.8%. As a validation, the derived band-averaged radiance responsivity are compared to that from a Goddard Space Flight Center lamp-based sphere calibration and good agreements (difference <1.4%) are found from 675 to 1020 nm bands.

Sun photometers are designed to measure direct solar irradiance and diffused sky radiance for the purpose of atmospheric parameters characterization. A sun photometer is usually calibrated by using a lamp-illuminated integrating sphere source for its band-averaged radiance responsivity, which normally has an uncertainty of 3%-5% at present. Considering the calibration coefficients may also change with time, a regular high precision calibration is important to maintain data quality. In this paper, a tunable-laser-based facility for spectral radiance responsivity calibration has been developed at the Key Laboratory of Optical Calibration and Characterization, Chinese Academy of Sciences. A reference standard radiance radiometer, calibrated against cryogenic radiometer, is used to determine the radiance from a laser-illuminated integrating sphere source. Spectral radiance responsivity of CIMEL CE318-2 sun photometer is calibrated using this new calibration system with a combined standard uncertainty of about 0.8%. As a validation, the derived band-averaged radiance responsivity are compared to that from a Goddard Space Flight Center lamp-based sphere calibration and good agreements (difference <1.4%) are found from 675 to 1020 nm bands.

We present the first experimental realization of the quantum illumination protocol proposed by Lloyd [Science 321, 1463 (2008)] and S. Tan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 253601 (2008)], achieved in a simple feasible experimental scheme based on photon-number correlations. A main achievement of our result is the demonstration of a strong robustness of the quantum protocol to noise and losses that challenges some widespread wisdom about quantum technologies.

By using a combined closed and free-field stimulation system, binaurality and azimuth tuning of the neurons in the auditory cortex of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, were studied. A variety of azimuth-tuning functions were demonstrated for the binaural neurons. The large majority of EE (contralateral and ipsilateral excitatory) neurons exhibited azimuth selectivity with the best azimuths (BA) at contralateral 30(- 40(, some at ipsilateral 20(-40( and preferred azimuth ranges (PAR, response amplitude ≥75% of maximum) between 8( and 40(. Sound source azimuths strongly modulate spike counts with a mean modulation depth of 83.8% for EE neurons. EI (contralateral excitatory and ipsilateral inhibitory) neurons have simple azimuth tuning with BA located at contralateral 20(-40( and a broad PAR ranged from 30( to 55(. The present results suggest that azimuth-tuning characteristics of binaural neurons in the auditory cortex of the bat are of significance for acoustic behaviour.

Full Text Available Nowadays sun sensors are being more widely used in satellites to determine the sunray orientation, thus development of a new version of sun sensor with lighter mass, lower power consumption and smaller size it of considerable interest. This paper introduces such a novel digital sun sensor, which is composed of a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS mask with an N-shaped slit as well as a single linear array charge-coupled device (CCD. The sun sensor can achieve the measurement of two-axis sunray angles according to the three sun spot images on the CCD formed by sun light illumination through the mask. Given the CCD glass layer, an iterative algorithm is established to correct the refraction error. Thus, system resolution, update rate and other characteristics are improved based on the model simulation and system design. The test of sun sensor prototype is carried out on a three-axis rotating platform with a sun simulator. The test results show that the field of view (FOV is ±60° × ±60° and the accuracy is 0.08 degrees of arc (3σ in the whole FOV. Since the power consumption of the prototype is only 300 mW and the update rate is 14 Hz, the novel digital sun sensor can be applied broadly in micro/nano-satellites, even pico-satellites.

An article adapted for selectively utilizing solar radiation comprises an absorptive surface and a reflective surface, the absorptive surface and the reflective surface oriented to absorb solar radiation when the sun is in a relatively low position, and to reflect solar radiation when the sun is in a relatively high position.

The seismic study of the Sun and other stars offers a unique window into the interior of these stars. Thanks to helioseismology, we know the structure of the Sun to admirable precision. In fact, our knowledge is good enough to use the Sun as a laboratory. We have also been able to study the dynamics of the Sun in great detail. Helioseismic data also allow us to probe the changes that take place in the Sun as solar activity waxes and wanes. The seismic study of stars other than the Sun is a fairly new endeavour, but we are making great strides in this field. In this review I discuss some of the techniques used in helioseismic analyses and the results obtained using those techniques. In this review I focus on results obtained with global helioseismology, i.e., the study of the Sun using its normal modes of oscillation. I also briefly touch upon asteroseismology, the seismic study of stars other than the Sun, and discuss how seismic data of others stars are interpreted.

The azimuthal anisotropy of jet spectra due to energy loss of jet partons in azimuthally non-symmetric volume of dense quark-gluon matter is considered for semi-central nuclear interactions at collider energies. We develop the techniques for event-by-event analysing jet azimuthal anisotropy using particle and energy elliptic flow, and suggest the method for calculating coefficient of jet azimuthal anisotropy without reconstruction of nuclear reaction plane.

Azimuthal distributions of charged particles and intermediate mass fragments emitted in Au+Au collisions at 600 A MeV have been measured using the FOPI facility at GSI-Darmstadt. Data show a strong increase of the in-plane azimuthal anisotropy ratio with the charge of the detected fragment. Intermediate mass fragments are found to exhibit a strong momentum-space alignment with respect of the reaction plane. The experimental results are presented as a function of the polar centre-of-mass angle and over a broad range of impact parameters. They are compared to the predictions of the Isospin Quantum Molecular Dynamics model using three different parametrisations of the equation of state. We show that such highly accurate data provide stringent test for microscopic transport models and can potentially constrain separately the stiffness of the nuclear equation of state and the momentum dependence of the nuclear interaction.

We determine a detailed 3-D model of azimuthal anisotropy tomography of the Tohoku subduction zone from the Japan Trench outer-rise to the back-arc near the Japan Sea coast, using a large number of high-quality P and S wave arrival-time data of local earthquakes recorded by the dense seismic network on the Japan Islands. Depth-varying seismic azimuthal anisotropy is revealed in the Tohoku subduction channel. The shallow portion of the Tohoku megathrust zone (plate mainly exhibits trench-parallel FVDs, except for the top portion of the subducting Pacific slab where visible trench-normal FVDs are revealed. A qualitative tectonic model is proposed to interpret such anisotropic features, suggesting transposition of earlier fabrics in the oceanic lithosphere into subduction-induced new structures in the subduction channel.

Strong multiparticle azimuthal correlations have recently been observed in high energy proton-nucleus collisions. While final state collective effects can be responsible for many of the observations, the domain structure in the classical color field of a high energy nucleus also naturally leads to such correlations. We describe recent calculations of the momentum space 2-particle cumulant azimuthal anisotropy coefficients v_n{2}, n=2,3,4 from fundamental representation Wilson line distributions describing the high energy nucleus. We find significant differences between Wilson lines from the MV model and from JIMWLK evolution. We also discuss the relation of this calculation to earlier work on the ridge correlation obtained in the "glasma graph" approximation, and to the "color electric field domain model."

The concept of magnetic nanoprobes (or magnetic nanoantennas) providing a magnetic near-field enhancement and vanishing electric field is presented and investigated, together with their excitation. It is established that a particular type of cylindrical vector beams called azimuthally electric polarized vector beams yield strong longitudinal magnetic field on the beam axis where the electric field is ideally null. These beams with an electric polarization vortex and cylindrical symmetry are important in generating high magnetic to electric field contrast, i.e., large local field admittance, and in allowing selective excitation of magnetic transitions in matter located on the beam axis. We demonstrate that azimuthally polarized vector beam excitation of a photoinduced magnetic nanoprobe made of a magnetically polarizable nano cluster leads to enhanced magnetic near field with resolution beyond diffraction limit. We introduce two figures of merit as magnetic field enhancement and local field admittance normaliz...

This study reports the first measurement of the azimuthal decorrelation between jets with pseudorapidity separation up to five units. The data were accumulated using the D0 detector during the 1992-1993 collider run of the Fermilab Tevatron at s = 1.8 TeV. These results are compared to next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD predictions and to two leading-log approximations (LLA) where the leading-log terms are resummed to all orders in αS. The final state jets as predicted by NLO QCD show less azimuthal decorrelation than the data. The parton showering LLA Monte Carlo HERWIG describes the data well; an analytical LLA prediction based on Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov resummation shows more decorrelation than the data.

Using the asymptotic conformal invariance of perturbative QCD we derive the expression of the coupling of external states to all conformal spin-p components of the forward elastic amplitude. Using the wave-function formalism for structure functions at small x, we derive the perturbative coupling of the virtual photon for p= 1, which is maximal for linear transverse polarization. The non-perturbative coupling to the proton is discussed in terms of ``azimuthal matching'' between the proton color dipoles and the quark- antiquark configurations of the photon. As an application, the recent conjecture of a second QCD Pomeron related to the conformal spin-1 component is shown to rely upon a strong azimuthal matching of the p= 1 component in gamma* -proton scattering.

This study reports the first measurement of the azimuthal decorrelation between jets with pseudorapidity separation up to five units. The data were accumulated using the D\\O\\ detector during the 1992--1993 collider run of the Fermilab Tevatron at \\sqrt{s}= 1.8 TeV. These results are compared to next--to--leading order (NLO) QCD predictions and to two leading--log approximations (LLA) where the leading--log terms are resummed to all orders in \\alpha_{\\scriptscriptstyle S}. The final state jets as predicted by NLO QCD show less azimuthal decorrelation than the data. The parton showering LLA Monte Carlo {\\small HERWIG} describes the data well; an analytical LLA prediction based on BFKL resummation shows more decorrelation than the data.

We use Lorentz invariance and the QCD equations of motion to study the evolution of functions that appear at leading (zeroth) order in a 1/Q expansion in azimuthal asymmetries. This includes the evolution equation of the Collins fragmentation function. The moments of these functions are matrix elements of known twist two and twist three operators. We present the evolution in the large N_c limit, restricted to the non-singlet case for the chiral-even functions.

We use Lorentz invariance and the QCD equations of motion to study the evolution of functions that appear at leading (zeroth) order in a l/Q expansion in azimuthal asymmetries. This includes the evolution equation of the Collins fragmentation function. The moments of these functions are matrix elements of known twist two and twist three operators. We present the evolution in the large NC limit, restricted to the non-singlet case for the chiral-even functions.

We use Lorentz invariance and the QCD equations of motion to study the evolution of functions that appear at leading (zeroth) order in a 1/Q expansion in azimuthal asymmetries. This includes the evolution equation of the Collins fragmentation function. The moments of these functions are matrix elements of known twist two and twist three operators. We present the evolution in the large Nc limit, restricted to the non-singlet case for the chiral-even functions.

The paper describes the modal dispersion characteristics of electromagnetic waves traveling along the azimuthally magnetized ferrite-loaded coaxial transmission line and the ferrite-loaded wire. The modal dispersion curves are used to determine the pass and stop bands of normal propagation. Boundary-value problems were solved with Bolle-Heller functions. The dispersion characteristics of transverse electric modes are presented as plots of the normalized propagation constant vs the normalized frequency.

The distribution of the azimuthal angle for the charged hadrons has been studied in the hadronic centre-of-mass system for neutral current deep inelastic positron-proton scattering with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Measurements of the dependence of the moments of this distribution on the transverse momenta of the charged hadrons are presented. Asymmetries that can be unambiguously attributed to perturbative QCD processes have been observed for the first time.

Focusing moving targets with Normalized Relative Speed (NRS) for bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is discussed in this paper. The discussion concentrates on azimuth invariant bistatic geometry. The focusing approach for azimuth-invariant bistatic geometry is derived analytically. The validity of the proposed approach for other bistatic geometry like azimuth-variant is also investigated.

Green's functions for Rossby waves in an azimuthal wind are obtained, in which the stream-function $\\psi$ depends on $r$, $\\phi$ and $t$, where $r$ is cylindrical radius and $\\phi$ is the azimuthal angle in the $\\beta$-plane relative to the easterly direction, in which the $x$-axis points east and the $y$-axis points north. The Rossby wave Green's function with no wind is obtained using Fourier transform methods, and is related to the previously known Green's function obtained for this case, which has a different but equivalent form to the Green's function obtained in the present paper. We emphasize the role of the wave eikonal solution, which plays an important role in the form of the solution. The corresponding Green's function for a rotating wind with azimuthal wind velocity ${\\bf u}=\\Omega r{\\bf e}_\\phi$ ($\\Omega=$const.) is also obtained by Fourier methods, in which the advective rotation operator in position space is transformed to a rotation operator in ${\\bf k}$ transform space. The finite Rossby defo...

In smart antenna system, it is extremely crucial to estimate the direction of incoming signals in order to achieve better reception. Reliability of DOA estimation depends on several factors such as the choice of DOA algorithm, size of antenna array as well as array geometry. Therefore, it is particularly desirable to have a configuration of antenna array that could produce an accurate azimuth estimation. In this work, a new planar array is proposed to address the problem of azimuth estimation. This is achieved by having a flexible element position on the x- y plane that improves the steering vector, hence significantly enhances the accuracy of DOA estimation. Besides, a fair distribution of the antenna elements on the x-y plane also helps to eliminates estimation failure in the azimuth range between 240° and 360°. A comparison study between the proposed array and V-shape array is performed in order to gauge the performance of the proposed array in DOA estimation. Simulation results show that the proposed array has acquired better estimation resolution than V-shape array. On top of that, the proposed array has reduced estimation error in V-shape array. It is concluded that the proposed array has shown potential as an excellent choice of antenna array geometry for smart antenna system.

COMPASS is a high-energy physics experiment operating at the SPS at CERN. Wide physics program of the experiment comprises study of hadron structure and spectroscopy with high energy muon and hadrons beams. As for the muon-program, one of the important objectives of the COMPASS experiment is the exploration of the transverse spin structure of the nucleon via spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries in single-hadron production in deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons off transversely polarized target. For this purpose a series of measurements were made in COMPASS, using 160 GeV/c longitudinally polarized muon beam and transversely polarized 6LiD (in 2002, 2003 and 2004) and NH3 (in 2007 and 2010) targets. The experimental results obtained by COMPASS for unpolarized target azimuthal asymmetries, Sivers and Collins effects and other azimuthal observables play an important role in the general understanding of the three-dimensional nature of the nucleon. Giving access to the entire twsit-2 set of transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions and fragmentation functions COMPASS data triggers constant theoretical interest and is being widely used in phenomenological analyses and global data fits. In this review main focus is given to the very recent results obtained by the COMPASS collaboration from first ever multi-dimensional extraction of transverse spin asymmetries.

COMPASS is a high-energy physics experiment operating at the SPS at CERN. Wide physics program of the experiment comprises study of hadron structure and spectroscopy with high energy muon and hadrons beams. As for the muon-program, one of the important objectives of the COMPASS experiment is the exploration of the transverse spin structure of the nucleon via spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries in single-hadron production in deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons off transversely polarized target. For this purpose a series of measurements were made in COMPASS, using 160 GeV/c longitudinally polarized muon beam and transversely polarized 6LiD (in 2002, 2003 and 2004) and NH3 (in 2007 and 2010) targets. The experimental results obtained by COMPASS for unpolarized target azimuthal asymmetries, Sivers and Collins effects and other azimuthal observables play an important role in the general understanding of the three-dimensional nature of the nucleon. Giving access to the entire "twsit-2" set of transv...

Green's functions for Rossby waves in an azimuthal wind are obtained, in which the stream-function $\\psi$ depends on $r$, $\\phi$ and $t$, where $r$ is cylindrical radius and $\\phi$ is the azimuthal angle in the $\\beta$-plane relative to the easterly direction, in which the $x$-axis points east and the $y$-axis points north. The Rossby wave Green's function with no wind is obtained using Fourier transform methods, and is related to the previously known Green's function obtained for this case, which has a different but equivalent form to the Green's function obtained in the present paper. We emphasize the role of the wave eikonal solution, which plays an important role in the form of the solution. The corresponding Green's function for a rotating wind with azimuthal wind velocity ${\\bf u}=\\Omega r{\\bf e}_\\phi$ ($\\Omega=$const.) is also obtained by Fourier methods, in which the advective rotation operator in position space is transformed to a rotation operator in ${\\bf k}$ transform space. The finite Rossby deformation radius is included in the analysis. The physical characteristics of the Green's functions are delineated and applications are discussed. In the limit as $\\Omega\\to 0$, the rotating wind Green's function reduces to the Rossby wave Green function with no wind.

Performance of the GMT azimuth drive system is vital for the operation of the telescope and, as such, all components subject to wear at the drive interface merit a high level of scrutiny for achieving a proper balance between capital costs, maintenance costs, and the risk for downtime during planned and unplanned maintenance or replacement procedures. Of particular importance is the interface between the azimuth wheels and rail, as usage frequency is high, the full weight of the enclosure must be transferred through small patches of contact, and replacement of the rail would pose a greater logistical challenge than the replacement of smaller components such as bearings and gearmotors. This study investigates tradeoffs between various wheel-rail and roller-track interfaces, including performance, complexity, and anticipated wear considerations. First, a survey of railway and overhead crane industry literature is performed and general detailing recommendations are made to minimize wear and the risk of rolling contact fatigue. Second, Adams/VI-Rail is used to simulate lifetime wear of four specific configurations under consideration for the GMT azimuth wheel-rail interface; all studied configurations are shown to be viable, and their relative merits are discussed.

Full Text Available There are two sun-tracking methods widely used for the heliostat, which are conventional Azimuth-Elevation and revolutionary Spinning-Elevation methods. Following the previous study to compare the range of motion, a comparison study in optical efficiency of heliostat field for the two methods is further explored in this paper. A special algorithm using ray-tracing technique has also been developed to simulate the optical efficiency of heliostat field for both sun-tracking methods in different latitudes. With the new algorithm, comprehensive analysis to compare the optical efficiency of individual heliostat and the overall heliostat field for the two sun-tracking methods has been carried out.

Because the Sun is so close, it makes an excellent laboratory to study processes we cant examinein distant stars. One openquestion is that of how solar magnetic fields rearrange themselves, producing the tremendous releases of energy we observe as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).What is Magnetic Reconnection?Magnetic reconnection occurs when a magnetic field rearranges itself to move to a lower-energy state. As field lines of opposite polarity reconnect, magnetic energy is suddenly converted into thermal and kinetic energy.This processis believed to be behind the sudden releases of energy from the solar surface in the form of solar flares and CMEs. But there are many different models for how magnetic reconnection could occur in the magnetic field at the Suns surface, and we arent sure which one of these reconnection types is responsible for the events we see.Recently, however, several studies have been published presenting some of the first observational support of specific reconnection models. Taken together, these observations suggest that there are likely several different types of reconnection happening on the solar surface. Heres a closer look at two of these recent publications:A pre-eruption SDO image of a flaring region (b) looks remarkably similar to a 3D cartoon for typical breakout configuration (a). Click for a closer look! [Adapted from Chen et al. 2016]Study 1:Magnetic BreakoutLed by Yao Chen (Shandong University in China), a team of scientists has presented observations made by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) of a flare and CME event that appears to have been caused by magnetic breakout.In the magnetic breakout model, a series of loops in the Suns lower corona are confined by a surrounding larger loop structure called an arcade higher in the corona. As the lower loops push upward, reconnection occurs in the upper corona, removing the overlying, confining arcade. Without that extra confinement, the lower coronal loops expand upward

A total eclipse of the Sun is the most awesome sight in the heavens. Totality: Eclipses of the Sun takes you to eclipses of the past, present, and future, and lets you see - and feel - why people travel to the ends of the Earth to observe them. - ;A total eclipse of the Sun is the most awesome sight in the heavens. Totality: Eclipses of the Sun takes you to eclipses of the past, present, and future, and lets you see - and feel - why people travel to the ends of the Earth to observe them. Totality: Eclipses of the Sun is the best guide and reference book on solar eclipses ever written. It explains: how to observe them; how to photograph and videotape them; why they occur; their history and mythology; and future eclipses - when and where to see them. Totality also tells the remarkable story of how eclipses shocked scientists, revealed the workings of the Sun, and made Einstein famous. And the book shares the experiences and advice of many veteran eclipse observers. Totality: Eclipses of the Sun is profusely ill...

Full Text Available Virtual studio technology plays an important role for modern television productions. Blue-screen matting is a common technique for integrating real actors or moderators into computer generated sceneries. Augmented reality offers the possibility to mix real and virtual in a more general context. This article proposes a new technological approach for combining real studio content with computer-generated information. Digital light projection allows a controlled spatial, temporal, chrominance and luminance modulation of illumination opening new possibilities for TV studios.

Huanglongbing (HLB) has been considered the most devastating disease of citrus. The bacterium and vector associated with HLB in Florida are ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ and Diaphorina citri (Asian citrus psyllid), respectively. D. citri is positively phototropic, and higher populations have b...

In a medically motivated Sun-exposure study, questionnaires concerning Sun-habits were collected from a number of subjects together with UV radiation measurements. This paper focuses on identifying clusters in the heterogeneous set of data for the purpose of understanding possible relations between...... Sun-habits exposure and eventually assessing the risk of skin cancer. A general probabilistic framework originally developed for text and Web mining is demonstrated to be useful for clustering of behavioral data. The framework combines principal component subspace projection with probabilistic...

hair in the passive image is not. While there has been considerable discussion of terahertz time domain spectroscopy and other proximate imaging ap...for example along the terminator line of the Moon illuminated by the Sun. A number of prominent features are associated with the open staircase in the

Magnetic field topologies between the Sun and Earth are important for the connectivity to Earth of solar suprathermal particles, e.g., solar energetic particles and the electrons in type III solar radio bursts. An approach is developed for mapping large-scale magnetic field lines in the solar equatorial plane, using near-Earth observations and a solar wind model with nonzero azimuthal magnetic field at the source surface. The predicted field line maps show that near both minimal and maximal solar activity the field lines are typically open and that loops with both ends either connected to or disconnected from the Sun occur sometimes. The open field lines, nonetheless, often do not closely follow the Parker spiral, being less or more tightly wound, or strongly azimuthally or radially oriented, or inverted. Assessments of the mapped field line configurations using time-varying suprathermal electron pitch angle distributions (PADs) observed by Wind show that the mapping predictions agree quantitatively (˜90%) with the PAD observations and outperform (by ˜20%) the predictions using the standard Parker spiral model. Application to a type III radio burst observed by Ulysses and Wind shows that the mapping prediction agrees well with the local magnetic field line traced by the type III source path, which covers heliocentric distances of ˜0.1--0.4 AU. Furthermore, applications to local field structures inferred from ACE observations demonstrate that the mapping can predict the majority (65-75%) of the local field line inversions for the multiple phases of the solar cycle.

One way to introduce astronomy to public, including students, can be handled by solar observation. The widely held device for this purpose is coelostat and heliostat. Besides using filter attached to a device such as telescope, it is safest to use indirect way for observing the Sun. The main principle of the indirect way is deflecting the sun light and projecting image of the sun on a screen. We design and build a simple and low-cost astronomical device, serving as a supplement to increase public service, especially for solar observation. Without using any digital and intricate supporting equipment, people can watch and relish image of the Sun in comfortable condition, i.e. in a sheltered or shady place. Here we describe a design and features of our prototype of the device, which still, of course, has some limitations. In the future, this prototype can be improved for more efficient and useful applications.

Full Text Available The design of a triple junction solar cell’s front contact grid can significantly affect cell conversion efficiency under high concentration. We consider one aspect of grid design, choosing a linear grid within a distributed resistance cell model to optimize finger spacings at concentrations between 500 and 2500 suns under uniform and nonuniform illumination. Optimization for maximum efficiency under Gaussian irradiance profiles is done by SPICE analysis. Relative to the optimized uniform illumination designs, we find enhancements of 0.5% to 2% in absolute efficiencies for uniform spacing. Efficiency enhancement with nonuniform spacing under nonuniform illumination is also evaluated. Our model suggests that, at lower concentrations (<1000 suns, the penalty for using uniformly spaced fingers instead of nonuniformly spaced fingers is <0.1%. However, at a concentration of 2500 suns the penalty increases to 0.3%. Thus, relative to a uniform irradiance optimization, an absolute efficiency increase of 2.3% can be attained for an optimized nonuniform spacing given the Gaussian irradiance profile under consideration.

Full Text Available The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of polarization for the problem of pure azimuthal shear of an elastic dielectric material. The present problem is investigated in context of finite deformation theory. In this paper, the author studied the effect of polarization on the stresses for Neoprene rubber and compare the results with elastic material (Mooney-Rivlin material graphically. Twisting of a rigid cylinder in an infinite elastic medium is considered as a special case in this research.

Two-pion correlation functions, measured as a function of azimuthal emission angle with respect to the reaction plane, provide novel information on the anisotropic shape and orientation of the pion-emitting zone formed in heavy ion collisions. We present the first experimental determination of this information, for semi-central Au+Au collisions at 2-6 AGeV. The source extension perpendicular to the reaction plane is greater than the extension in the plane, and tilt of the pion source in coordinate space is found to be opposite its tilt in momentum space.

In this paper, we present an unsupervised method for segmenting the illuminant regions and estimating the illumination power spectrum from a single image of a scene lit by multiple light sources. Here, illuminant region segmentation is cast as a probabilistic clustering problem in the image spectral radiance space. We formulate the problem in an optimization setting, which aims to maximize the likelihood of the image radiance with respect to a mixture model while enforcing a spatial smoothness constraint on the illuminant spectrum. We initialize the sample pixel set under each illuminant via a projection of the image radiance spectra onto a low-dimensional subspace spanned by a randomly chosen subset of spectra. Subsequently, we optimize the objective function in a coordinate-ascent manner by updating the weights of the mixture components, sample pixel set under each illuminant, and illuminant posterior probabilities. We then estimate the illuminant power spectrum per pixel making use of these posterior probabilities. We compare our method with a number of alternatives for the tasks of illumination region segmentation, illumination color estimation, and color correction. Our experiments show the effectiveness of our method as applied to one hyperspectral and three trichromatic image data sets.

In the late 1960s it was hypothesized that Vikings had been able to navigate the open seas, even when the sun was occluded by clouds or below the sea horizon, by using the angle of polarization of skylight. To detect the direction of skylight polarization, they were thought to have made use of birefringent crystals, called "sun-stones," and a large part of the scientific community still firmly believe that Vikings were capable of polarimetric navigation. However, there are some critics who treat the usefulness of skylight polarization for orientation under partly cloudy or twilight conditions with extreme skepticism. One of their counterarguments has been the assumption that solar positions or solar azimuth directions could be estimated quite accurately by the naked eye, even if the sun was behind clouds or below the sea horizon. Thus under partly cloudy or twilight conditions there might have been no serious need for a polarimetric method to determine the position of the sun. The aim of our study was to test quantitatively the validity of this qualitative counterargument. In our psychophysical laboratory experiments, test subjects were confronted with numerous 180 degrees field-of-view color photographs of partly cloudy skies with the sun occluded by clouds or of twilight skies with the sun below the horizon. The task of the subjects was to guess the position or the azimuth direction of the invisible sun with the naked eye. We calculated means and standard deviations of the estimated solar positions and azimuth angles to characterize the accuracy of the visual sun location. Our data do not support the common belief that the invisible sun can be located quite accurately from the celestial brightness and/or color patterns under cloudy or twilight conditions. Although our results underestimate the accuracy of visual sun location by experienced Viking navigators, the mentioned counterargument cannot be taken seriously as a valid criticism of the theory of the alleged

In many illumination problems, the beam pattern needed and/or some geometrical constraints lead to very asymmetric design conditions. These asymmetries have been solved in the past by means of arrangements of rotationally symmetric or linear lamps aimed in different directions whose patterns overlap to provide the asymmetric prescriptions or by splitting one single lamp into several sections, each one providing a part of the pattern. The development of new design methods yielding smooth continuous free-form optical surfaces to solve these challenging design problems, combined with the proper CAD modeling tools plus the development of multiple axes diamond turn machines, give birth to a new generation of optics. These are able to offer the performance and other advanced features, such as efficiency, compactness, or aesthetical advantages, and can be manufactured at low cost by injection molding. This paper presents two examples of devices with free-form optical surfaces, a camera flash, and a car headlamp.

Visual field function in the right and left eyes of 31 normal volunteers was evaluated with an automated projection perimeter (OCTOPUS). Serial visual field evaluations were repeated in these same eyes with neutral filters of increasing optical density. We compared the results of threshold determinations with the different neutral filters in place before the examined eye. Significant reduction in threshold sensitivity at several test spots throughout the central 30 degrees visual field was seen with neutral density filters of 0.5 log units or greater. The low level of background illumination of the OCTOPUS perimeter (4.0 apostilbs) may allow relatively minor reduction in light transmission by the ocular media to produce significant changes in the recorded level of threshold sensitivity during visual field evaluation.

rearrangement of the illuminated photocatalysts as well as localized charging effects and variations. We aim to investigate the reaction to gas and light exposure at the nanoscale. References [1] Herrmann, J. M., Top. Catal. 2005, 34, (1-4), 49-65. [2] Tsujimoto, M., S. Moriguchi, et al., J. Electron. Microsc......, composition and operation of photocatalysts and to provide information on the compounds inner arrangement and a fundamental contribution for their further optimization [2]. We want to construct a novel specimen holder capable of shining light onto samples inside the TEM allowing real time in situ experiments....... The holder is implemented with a laser diode and an optical system that guides the light onto the sample surface with maximum power transmission. The source can be changed and tuned according to the needs, in principle spanning the whole visible and UV light spectrum. It is possible to use the device inside...

This paper addresses the influence of illumination distribution on the performance of a high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) module. CPV systems comprise of optical elements as well as mechanical tracking to concentrate the solar flux onto the solar receiver as well as to keep the system on track with the sun. The performance of the subcells of the multi-junction concentrator cell depends on the optical alignment of the system. Raster scanning of the incident intensity in the optical plane of the receiver and corresponding I-V measurements were used to investigate the influence of illumination distribution on performance. The results show that the illumination distribution that differs between cells does affect the performance of the module. The performance of the subcells of the multi-junction concentrator cell also depends on the optical alignment of the system.

The present work reports on the discovery of three stars that we have identified to be rotating Sun-like stars, based on rotational modulation signatures inferred from light curves from the CoRoT mission's Public Archives. In our analysis, we performed an initial selection based on the rotation period and position in the period-T{sub eff} diagram. This revealed that the stars CoRoT IDs 100746852, 102709980, and 105693572 provide potentially good matches to the Sun with a similar rotation period. To refine our analysis, we applied a novel procedure, taking into account the fluctuations of the features associated with photometric modulation at different time intervals and the fractality traces that are present in the light curves of the Sun and of these ''New Sun'' candidates alike. In this sense, we computed the so-called Hurst exponent for the referred stars, for a sample of 14 CoRoT stars with sub- and super-solar rotational periods, and for the Sun itself in its active and quiet phases. We found that the Hurst exponent can provide a strong discriminant of Sun-like behavior, going beyond what can be achieved with solely the rotation period itself. In particular, we find that CoRoT ID 105693572 is the star that most closely matches the solar rotation properties as far as the latter's imprints on light curve behavior are concerned. The stars CoRoT IDs 100746852 and 102709980 have significant smaller Hurst exponents than the Sun, notwithstanding their similarity in rotation periods.

Exploration of transverse spin structure of the nucleon via study of the spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) and Drell-Yan (DY) reactions is one of the main aspects of the broad physics program of the COMPASS experiment (CERN, Switzerland). In past decade COMPASS has collected a considerable amount of polarized deuteron and proton SIDIS data while 2014 and 2015 runs were dedicated to the Drell-Yan measurements. Results on SIDIS azimuthal effects provided so far by COMPASS play an important role in general understanding of the three-dimensional nature of the nucleon. Giving access to the entire "twist-2" set of transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions (PDFs) and fragmentation functions (FFs) COMPASS data are being widely used in phenomenological analyses and experimental data fits. Recent unique and first ever x-$Q^{2}$-z-pT multidimensional results for transverse spin asymmetries obtained by COMPASS serve as a direct and unprece...

One of the important objectives of the COMPASS experiment (CERN, SPS north area) is the exploration of transverse spin structure of nucleon via study of spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries with semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) processes and recently also with Drell-Yan (DY) reactions. In the past twelve years series of measurements were made in COMPASS, using 160 GeV/c longitudinally polarized muon beam and polarized $^6LiD$ and $NH_3$ targets. Drell-Yan measurements with high energy (190 GeV/c) pion beam and transversely polarized $NH_3$ target started in 2014 with a pilot-run have been followed by 140 days of data taking in 2015. The experimental results obtained by COMPASS for azimuthal effects in SIDIS play an important role in the general understanding of the three-dimensional nature of the nucleon and are widely used in theoretical analyses and global data fits. In addition, future first ever polarized DY-data from COMPASS compared with SIDIS results will open a new chapter probing ...

Seismic anisotropy is ubiquitous in the Earth's mantle but strongest in its thermo-mechanical boundary layers. Azimuthal anisotropy in the oceanic lithosphere and asthenosphere can be imaged by surface waves and should be particularly straightforward to relate to well-understood plate kinematics and large-scale mantle flow. However, previous studies have come to mixed conclusions as to the depth extent of the applicability of paleo-spreading and mantle flow models of anisotropy, and no simple, globally valid, relationships exist. Here, we show that lattice preferred orientation (LPO) inferred from mantle flow computations produces a plausible global background model for asthenospheric anisotropy underneath oceanic lithosphere. The same is not true for absolute plate motion (APM) models. A ˜200 km thick layer where the flow model LPO matches observations from tomography lies just below the ˜1200 °C isotherm of a half-space cooling model, indicating strong temperature-dependence of the processes that control the development of azimuthal anisotropy. We infer that the depth extent of shear, and hence the thickness of a relatively strong oceanic lithosphere, can be mapped this way. These findings for the background model, and ocean-basin specific deviations from the half-space cooling pattern, are found in all of the three recent and independent tomographic models considered. Further exploration of deviations from the background model may be useful for general studies of oceanic plate formation and dynamics as well as regional-scale tectonic analyses.

Full Text Available A new azimuthally stable polarimetric technique processing microscopic images of optically anisotropic structures of biological tissues histological sections is proposed. It has been used as a generalized model of phase anisotropy definition of biological tissues by using superposition of Mueller matrices of linear birefringence and optical activity. The matrix element M44 has been chosen as the main information parameter, whose value is independent of the rotation angle of both sample and probing beam polarization plane. For the first time, the technique of concerted spatial-frequency filtration has been used in order to separate the manifestation of linear birefringence and optical activity. Thereupon, the method of azimuthally stable spatial-frequency cartography of biological tissues histological sections has been elaborated. As the analyzing tool, complex statistic, correlation, and fractal analysis of coordinate distributions of M44 element has been performed. The possibility of using the biopsy of the uterine wall tissue in order to differentiate benign (fibromyoma and malignant (adenocarcinoma conditions has been estimated.

A method is described for determining the azimuth angle of a borehole being drilled by instruments contained downhole in the drillstring, including the steps of: sensing with accelerometer means, during a period of nonrotation of the drillstring, the components of Gx, Gy and Gz of the total gravity field Go at the location of the instrument; sensing with magnetometer means, during a period of nonrotation of the drillstring, the components of Hx, Hy and Hz of the total magnetic field Ho at the location of the instrument; the components Gz and Hz being along the axis of the drillstring, the components Gx and the components and Gy being orthogonal to Gz and the components Hx and Hy being orthogonal to Hz; rotating the magnetometer means with the drillstring and obtaining the parameter Hzr which is the Hz component of the magnetic field at the location of the instrument during rotation of the drillstring; determining Ho from values Hx, Hy and Hz sensed during nonrotation of the drillstring; determining the inclination angle of the drillstring; determining the dip angle of the magnetic field; determining the angle between the direction of the magnetic field and the axis of the drillstring at the location of the instrument from Ho and Hzr; and determining the azimuth angle.

Pointing angle and pattern of the antenna can be changed swiftly to actualize the azimuth beam scanning by using electronic beam steering,which makes the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)system more flexible and achieve a high resolution or cover a long strip within short time span.When the pointing angle is steered away from boresight,some aberrations may appear on the antenna pattern,e.g.,the grating lobe appears,the main lobe gain decrease,and antenna pattern broadens,e.g.,the aberrations result in the worsening of system performance,and complicate the corresponding performance analysis method.Conventional computation methods of performance parameters do not account for the rapid change of the antenna pattern.It introduces remarkable errors when the scanning angle is large.In this paper,a method of calculating performance parameters is proposed for the beam steering mode,which achieves the parameters by the energy accumulation in time domain.Actually,the proposed method simulates the working process of SAR and obtains accurate performance parameters.Furthermore,we analyze the effects of the grating lobe on the Azimuth Ambiguity to Signal Ratio (AASR),and present the generic Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF) choosing principle which can also prevent the ambiguous area from weighting by the grating lobe.Finally,the effect of the antenna configuration on the performance parameters is analyzed by a system example.

The 2014 SunShot Initiative Portfolio Book outlines the progress towards the goals outlined in the SunShot Vision Study. Contents include overviews of each of SunShot’s five subprogram areas, as well as a description of every active project in the SunShot’s project portfolio as of May 2014.

Characterizing humans' ability to discriminate changes in illumination provides information about the visual system's representation of the distal stimulus. We have previously shown that humans are able to discriminate illumination changes and that sensitivity to such changes depends on their chromatic direction. Probing illumination discrimination further would be facilitated by the use of computer-graphics simulations, which would, in practice, enable a wider range of stimulus manipulations. There is no a priori guarantee, however, that results obtained with simulated scenes generalize to real illuminated scenes. To investigate this question, we measured illumination discrimination in real and simulated scenes that were well-matched in mean chromaticity and scene geometry. Illumination discrimination thresholds were essentially identical for the two stimulus types. As in our previous work, these thresholds varied with illumination change direction. We exploited the flexibility offered by the use of graphics simulations to investigate whether the differences across direction are preserved when the surfaces in the scene are varied. We show that varying the scene's surface ensemble in a manner that also changes mean scene chromaticity modulates the relative sensitivity to illumination changes along different chromatic directions. Thus, any characterization of sensitivity to changes in illumination must be defined relative to the set of surfaces in the scene.

We present an improved structured illumination configuration for structured illumination microscopy (SIM) based on spatial light modulator. Precise phase shifts and rotation of illumination fringes can be dynamically controlled using a spatial light modulator. The method is different from the conventional illumination configuration that are based on interference of ±1 diffractive order light. The experimental setup requires less optical elements making it compact, reliable, and suitable for integration. The method has been applied in the standing-wave total internal reflection fluorescent microscopy. High lateral resolution of sub-100 nm was achieved in single directional resolution enhancement experiments.

Density estimation employed in multi-pass global illumination algorithms gives cause to a trade-off problem between bias and noise. The problem is seen most evident as blurring of strong illumination features. This thesis addresses the problem, presenting four methods that reduce both noise...... and bias in estimates. Good results are obtained by the use of anisotropic filtering. Two methods handles the most common cases; filtering illumination reflected from object surfaces. One methods extends filtering to the temporal domain and one performs filtering on illumination from participating media...

JX Crystals 3-sun PV mirror modules have now been operating in four separate systems in the field for up to 2 years. Two post-mounted 2-axis tracking arrays of 12 modules each were installed at the Shanghai Flower Park in April of 2006. Then 672 modules were installed in a 100 kW array on N-S horizontal beam trackers at the Shanghai Flower Port in November of 2006. Finally, sets of 4 modules were installed on azimuth-tracking carousels on buildings at the Oak Ridge National Lab and at the U. of Nevada in Las Vegas in late 2007. All of these modules in each of these systems are still operating at their initial power ratings. No degradation in performance has been observed. The benefit of these 3-sun PV mirror modules is that they use 1/3 of the silicon single-crystal cell material in comparison to traditional planar modules. Since aluminum mirrors are much cheaper than high-purity single-crystal silicon-cells, these modules and systems should be much lower in cost when manufactured in high volume.

With the consumption of the resources, it's important to develop clean solar energy that can solve the problem of energy shortage. Obtaining an accurate position of the sun is the premise of using the solar energy efficiently. An accurate solar position includes two factors that are elevation and azimuth. In the paper, Joseph J. Michalsky's algorithm for calculation of the solar position is verified that is taken from the American Astronomical Almanac. The algorithm has been written into program by Joseph J. Michalsky in FORTRAN. In the paper, it's has been adapted to visual C++ that can calculate the solar elevation and azimuth and errors or some places that less accurate are corrected. The Chinese Astronomical Almanac for the year 1985 doesn't tabulate elevation and azimuth. The quantities needed to calculate elevation and azimuth are the right ascension, the declination and the Greenwich mean sidereal time that are tabulated in the Almanac. Comparing those variables that calculated from the algorithm with the data from the Chinese Astronomical Almanac for the year 1985, it can be found that the biggest difference of the two ways is only 0.01°, 0.01° and 0.0001h respectively, which prove the accuracy of the algorithm indirectly. The measured data that only include elevation comes from Basic Data of Geography in China written by Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Comparing elevation given by the algorithm with the measured data, it shows that the algorithm can be accurate calculating the position of the sun in some extent. And the paper shows in detail the conversion from the local real solar time to Universal Time because the time in Basic Data of Geography in China is the local real solar time. Finally we notice that the 0.01° accuracy mentioned by other paper is not the accuracy of the elevation and azimuth of the sun, but the accuracy of the right ascension and declination. It's easy to understand why the difference of the results

The detection of fractures is important for production and safety in coal fields. Subsurface fractures result in azimuthal anisotropy of the seismic wave, and the amplitude of reflection wave varies with offset and azimuth.In case of weak anisotropy, the reflection coefficients of P-wave are concisely denoted as the analytic function of fracture parameters. For the purpose of predicting the coalbed fracture distribution through analyzing variation of the reflection amplitudes with offset and azimuth, 3-D seismic data with full-azimuth were acquired in a coal field in Huainan, Anhui Province. The careful analysis and process of seismic data showed that the reflection amplitude of the primary coaibed varied with azimuth in much consistent with the theoretical model. The conclusion was drawn that the coal-bed fracture in this coal field could be predicted through the method of the P-wave azimuthal AVO.

The Sun encompasses planet Earth, supplies the heat that warms it, and even shakes it. The United Nation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assumed that solar influence on our climate is limited to changes in solar irradiance and adopted the consensus opinion of a Hydrogen-filled Sun, the Standard Solar Model (SSM). They did not consider the alternative solar model and instead adopted another consensus opinion: Anthropogenic greenhouse gases play a dominant role in climate change. The SSM fails to explain the solar wind, solar cycles, and the empirical link of solar surface activity with Earth changing climate. The alternative solar model, that was molded from an embarrassingly large number of unexpected observations revealed by space-age measurements since 1959, explains not only these puzzles but also how closely linked interactions between the Sun and its planets and other celestial bodies induce turbulent cycles of secondary solar characteristics that significantly affect Earth climate.

The azimuthal distributions of light particles (Z = 1,2) with respect to the entrance channel reaction plane are investigated with a view towards characterizing the modes of collective motion in intermediate energy heavy -ion collisions. A new technique for reaction plane determination from the distribution of light particles produced in a collision is developed and applied to Ar+V data. The data were acquired using the MSU 4pi Array, a new 215 element large solid angle detector system. At a beam energy of 35 MeV/nucleon, light charged particles are found to exhibit an enhanced emission in the reaction plane which increases with the mass of the detected particle. As the beam energy is increased to 100 MeV/nucleon, the anisotropy nearly vanishes, providing clues to the dynamics of these reactions in a transitional energy regime. The observed anisotropy contains signatures of two distinct modes of collective motion: attractive mean field deflection, and rotation of the fused system. A microscopic calculation based on mean-field mediated interactions plus nucleon-nucleon collisions reproduces both forms of collective motion and their associated azimuthal distributions. The calculation also suggests that the anisotropy due to mean -field deflection is established during the initial stages of the collision. The nature of the nuclear mean-field is further explored using data taken by the 4pi Array for peripheral 50 MeV/nucleon C induced reactions on C and Au targets. Although projectile fragments in grazing collisions are positively deflected by the coulomb force, a specific set of protons are found to be simultaneously attractively deflected by the mean-field towards the opposite side of the reaction plane. This direct observation of attractive mean field deflection supports aspects of the interpretation of the Ar+V data. Lastly, the experimental results are summarized and the potential for extracting more information about the dynamics of heavy-ion collisions using

We have in our celestial backyard, a prime example of a variable star. The Sun, long thought to be "perfect" and unvarying, began to reveal its cycles in the early 1600s as Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner used a telescope to study sunspots. For the past four hundred years, scientists have accumulated data, showing a magnetic cycle that repeats, on average, every eleven (or twenty-two) years. In addition, modern satellites have shown that the energy output at radio and x-ray wavelengths also varies with this cycle. This talk will showcase the Sun as a star and discuss how solar studies may be used to understand other stars.

The calibration of the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) sun sensor is described. This system consists of two energy-balancing silicon detectors which provide coarse azimuth and elevation control signals and a silicon photodiode array which provides top and bottom solar edge data for fine elevation control. All three detectors were calibrated on a mountaintop near Tucson, Ariz., using the Langley plot technique. The conventional Langley plot technique was modified to allow calibration of the two coarse detectors, which operate wideband. A brief description of the test setup is given. The HALOE instrument is a gas correlation radiometer that is now being developed for the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite.

We present a novel method to optimize the attenuation of light for the single scattering model in direct volume rendering. A common problem of single scattering is the high dynamic range between lit and shadowed regions due to the exponential attenuation of light along a ray. Moreover, light is often attenuated too strong between a sample point and the camera, hampering the visibility of important features. Our algorithm employs an importance function to selectively illuminate important structures and make them visible from the camera. With the importance function, more light can be transmitted to the features of interest, while contextual structures cast shadows which provide visual cues for perception of depth. At the same time, more scattered light is transmitted from the sample point to the camera to improve the primary visibility of important features. We formulate a minimization problem that automatically determines the extinction along a view or shadow ray to obtain a good balance between sufficient transmittance and attenuation. In contrast to previous approaches, we do not require a computationally expensive solution of a global optimization, but instead provide a closed-form solution for each sampled extinction value along a view or shadow ray and thus achieve interactive performance.

In the quantum illumination protocol for secure communication, Alice prepares entangled signal and idler beams via spontaneous parametric downconversion. She sends the signal beam to Bob, while retaining the idler. Bob imposes message modulation on the beam he receives from Alice, amplifies it, and sends it back to her. Alice then decodes Bob's information by making a joint quantum measurement on the light she has retained and the light she has received from him. The basic performance analysis for this protocol—which demonstrates its immunity to passive eavesdropping, in which Eve can only listen to Alice and Bob's transmissions—is reviewed, along with the results of its first proof-of-principle experiment. Further analysis is then presented, showing that secure data rates in excess of 1 Gbps may be possible over 20-km-long fiber links with technology that is available or under development. Finally, an initial scheme for thwarting active eavesdropping, in which Eve injects her own light into Bob's terminal, is proposed and analyzed.

-Mises-Fisher distributions. The elements in this family maximize the entropy under the constraint that the expectations and correlation matrix of the directions are known. The probability density function (pdf) of the proposed distribution is used to describe the bi-azimuth power spectrum of individual path components....... An estimator of the parameters of the pdf is derived and applied to characterize the spreads in both azimuth of departure and azimuth of arrival, as well as the correlation between both azimuths of individual path components. Preliminary results from an experimental investigation demonstrate the applicability...

An approach to automatically correct illumination problems in dermatological images is presented. The illumination function is estimated after combining the thematic map indicating skin-produced by an automated classification scheme- with the dermatological image data. The user is only required t...

Rimbaud's "Illuminations," one vast word-game, is used as an example of one of the most interesting challenges in translation--the rendering of plays on words. The process is discussed and illustrated by the analysis of numerous segments from "Illuminations." It is concluded that a satisfactory translation is almost impossible.…

The pressure-driven inertial collapse of a cylindrical void in an inviscid liquid is an integrable, Hamiltonian system that forms a finite-time singularity as the radius of the void collapses to zero. Here it is shown that when the natural cylindrical symmetry of the void is perturbed azimuthally, the perturbation modes neither grow nor decay, but instead cause constant amplitude vibrations about the leading-order symmetric collapse. Though the amplitudes are frozen in time, they grow relative to the mean radius which is collapsing to zero, eventually overtaking the leading-order symmetric implosion. Including weak viscous dissipation destroys the integrability of the underlying symmetric implosion, and the effect on the stability spectrum is that short-wavelength disturbances are now erased as the implosion proceeds. Introducing a weak rotational flow component to the symmetric implosion dynamics causes the vibrating shapes to spin as the mean radius collapses. The above theoretical scenario is compared to a...

We present algorithms for searching for azimuthally symmetric features in CMB data. Our algorithms are fully optimal for masked all-sky data with inhomogeneous noise, computationally fast, simple to implement, and make no approximations. We show how to implement the optimal analysis in both Bayesian and frequentist cases. In the Bayesian case, our algorithm for evaluating the posterior likelihood is so fast that we can do a brute-force search over parameter space, rather than using a Monte Carlo Markov chain. Our motivating example is searching for bubble collisions, a pre-inflationary signal which can be generated if multiple tunneling events occur in an eternally inflating spacetime, but our algorithms are general and should be useful in other contexts.

The azimuthal angle correlation between the two jets with the largest transverse momenta in inclusive 2-jet topologies, close to the back-to-back configuration, is measured for several regions of the leading jet transverse momentum. Measurements of the same observable requiring the presence of extra jets are also presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of $13~\\mathrm{TeV}$ corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $35.9~\\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. The results are compared to predictions using Monte Carlo event generators which combine perturbative QCD calculations up to next-to-leading-order accuracy with contributions from parton showers, hadronization, and multiparton interactions.

Various flow effects of nuclear and hadronic origin are investigated in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Nuclear emulsion data collected from {sup 84}Kr + Ag/Br interaction at an incident energy of 1.52 GeV per nucleon and from {sup 28}Si + Ag/Br interaction at an incident energy of 14.5 GeV per nucleon are used in the investigation. The transverse momentum distribution and the flow angle analysis show that collective behavior, like a bounce-off effect of the projectile spectators and a sidesplash effect of the target spectators, are present in our event samples. From an azimuthal angle analysis of the data we also see a direct flow of the projectile fragments and of the produced charged particles. On the other hand, for both data samples the target fragments exhibit a reverse flow, while the projectile fragments exhibit an elliptic flow. Relevant flow parameters are measured.

The helical and the azimuthal magnetorotational instabilities operate in rotating magnetized flows with relatively steep negative or extremely steep positive shear. The corresponding lower and upper Liu limits of the shear, which determine the threshold of modal growth of these instabilities, are continuously connected when some axial electrical current is allowed to pass through the rotating fluid. We investigate the nonmodal dynamics of these instabilities arising from the nonnormality of shear flow in the local approximation, generalizing the results of the modal approach. It is demonstrated that moderate transient/nonmodal amplification of both types of magnetorotational instability occurs within the Liu limits, where the system is stable according to modal analysis. We show that for the helical magnetorotational instability this magnetohydrodynamic behavior is closely connected with the nonmodal growth of the underlying purely hydrodynamic problem.

According to the flow narrative commonly applied to high-energy nuclear collisions a cylindrical-quadrupole component of 1D azimuth angular correlations is conventionally denoted by quantity $v_2$ and interpreted to represent elliptic flow. Jet angular correlations may also contribute to $v_2$ data as "nonflow" depending on the method used to calculate $v_2$, but 2D graphical methods are available to insure accurate separation. The nonjet (NJ) quadrupole has various properties inconsistent with a flow interpretation, including the observation that NJ quadrupole centrality variation in A-A collisions has no relation to strongly-varying jet modification ("jet quenching") in those collisions commonly attributed to jet interaction with a flowing dense medium. In this presentation I describe isolation of quadrupole spectra from pt-differential $v_2(p_t)$ data from the RHIC and LHC. I demonstrate that quadrupole spectra have characteristics very different from the single-particle spectra for most hadrons, that quad...

Sound localization can be realized by utilizing the physics of acoustics in various methods. This paper investigates a novel detection architecture for the azimuthal movement of sound source based on the interaural level difference (ILD) between two receivers. One of the microphones in the system is surrounded by barriers of various heights in order to cast the direction dependent diffraction of the incoming signal. The gradient analysis of the ILD between the structured and unstructured microphone demonstrates the rotation directions as clockwise, counter clockwise, and no rotation of the sound source. Acoustic experiments with different types of sound source over a wide range of target movements show that the average true positive and false positive rates are 67% and 16%, respectively. Spectral analysis demonstrates that the low frequency delivers decreased true and false positive rates and the high frequency presents increases of both rates, overall.

Liquid metal batteries consist of two molten metals with different electronegativity separated by molten salt. In these batteries, critical performance related factors such as the limiting current density are governed by fluid mixing in the positive electrode. In this work we present experimental results of a swirling flow in a layer of molten lead-bismuth alloy driven by electrical current. Using in-situ ultrasound velocimetery, we show that poloidal circulation appears at low current density, whereas azimuthal swirl becomes dominant at higher current density. The presence of thermal gradients produces buoyant forces, which are found to compete with those produced by current injection. Taking the ratio of the characteristic electromagnetic to buoyant flow velocity, we are able to predict the current density at which the flow becomes electromagnetically driven. Scaling arguments are also used to show that swirl is generated through self-interaction between the electrical current in the electrode with its own magnetic field.

We determine the angle and polarization dependent emission from 1.75 µm and 2.50 µm long InP nanowires by using cathodoluminescence polarimetry. We excite the vertical wires using a 5 keV electron beam, and find that the 880 nm bandgap emission shows azimuthally polarized rings, with the number of rings depending on the wire height. The data agree well with a model in which spontaneous emission from the wire emitted into the far field interferes with emission reflected off the substrate. From the model, the depth range from which the emission is generated is found to be up to 400 nm below the top surface of the wires, well beyond the extent of the primary electron cloud. This enables a probe of the carrier diffusion length in the InP nanowires.

A comprehensive analysis of normal rotationally symmetric TE modes in a circular waveguide, filled with ferrite, magnetized azimuthally to remanence by a coaxial switching conductor of finite radius, is presented. The characteristic equation of the structure, derived in terms of Kummer and Tricomi confluent hypergeometric functions of complex parameter and variable, is solved numerically, using specially compiled tables of wave functions. Families of theoretically calculated nonreciprocal phase characteristics of the gyrotropic waveguide are shown in normalized form for the two latched states of remanent magnetization, a variety of ferrite parameters, and different values of switching conductor to waveguide radius ratio. The influence of structure geometry and parameters of anisotropic ferrite on normalized differential phase shift and cutoff frequency spectrum of the TE01 mode is discussed.

The purpose is to take full advantage of daylight for inside illumination. The inside illuminance and luminous efficacy of the available solar radiation were analyzed. The paper deals with the controlled dynamic illuminance response of built environment in real-time conditions. The aim is controlled functioning of the roller blind as a regulation device to assure the desired inside illuminance with smooth roller blind moving. Automatic illuminance control based on fuzzy logic is realized on a test chamber with an opening on the south side. The development and design of the fuzzy controller for the corresponding positioning of the roller blind with the available solar radiation as external disturbance is the subject of this paper. (author)

A new method for laser illumination in particle image velocimetry (PIV) has been introduced: internal "isotropic-planar" illumination that provides laser light to regions of the flow field that were previously cast into shadow using the conventional external (laser light sheet) illumination method. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the isotropic-planar illumination method, a comparison of the measured velocity field around five side-by-side circular cylinders that are immersed in uniform flow is made against the conventional external illumination method. The new method is effective at eliminating the shadow region, allowing the velocity field of the upstream, gap and downstream regions around the five side-by-side circular cylinders to be measured simultaneously. These PIV measurements provide new insight into the behavior of the gap flow that passes between the cylinders.

Permanent magnets that are levitated and rotating over a bulk high-temperature superconductor (HTS) form the basis of many superconducting bearing designs. Experiments have shown that the rotational-loss 'coefficient of friction' for thrust bearings of this type can be as low as 8 x 10(exp -6). While the loss mechanisms of such bearings are not well understood, the azimuthal homogeneity of the rotating permanent magnet is believed to play an important role in determining the loss. One possible loss mechanism is magnetic hysteresis in the HTS, where the energy loss E per cycle is derived from the critical state model and given by E = K (Delta B)(sup 3)/J(sub c) where K is a geometric coefficient, Delta B is the variation in magnetic field at the surface of the HTS experienced during a rotation of the levitated magnet, and J(sub c) is the critical current density of the HTS. It is clear that a small decrease in Delta B (i.e., decreasing the azimuthal inhomogeneity of the rotating magnetic field) could have profound effects on decreasing E and the rotational coefficient of friction. The role of Delta B is also expected to be significant in reducing losses from eddy currents and other mechanisms. Low rotational losses in HTS bearings have been demonstrated only for levitated masses of several grams. For practical bearings, it is important to obtain these low losses with larger levitated masses. There are two main routes toward decreasing Delta B. The first is to improve the alignment of the magnetic particles during fabrication and to maintain close tolerances on grinding angles during manufacture of the permanent magnet. The second, the subject of this paper, is to provide correctional procedures after the magnet is fabricated.

"A new british sci-fi movie envisages the death of the sun not in billions of years, but in decades. And, amazingly, the film's scientific adviser says this may not be so far from the truth..." (1/2 page)

... can be harmful. It can lead to:Skin changes. Some skin cells with melanin can form a clump. This creates freckles and moles. Over time, these can develop cancer.Early aging. Time spent in the sun makes your skin age faster than normal. Signs of this are wrinkled, tight, or leathery ...

In earlier columns, the celestial coordinate system of hour circles of right ascension and degrees of declination was introduced along with the use of an equatorial star chart (see SFA Star Charts in Resources). This system shows the planets' motion relative to the ecliptic, the apparent path the Sun follows during the year. An alternate system,…

Presents a sequence of activities designed to allow eighth grade students to deal with one of the fundamental relationships that govern energy distribution. Activities guide students to measure light bulb brightness, discover the inverse square law, compare light bulb light to candle light, and measure sun brightness. (two references) (MCO)

In earlier columns, the celestial coordinate system of hour circles of right ascension and degrees of declination was introduced along with the use of an equatorial star chart (see SFA Star Charts in Resources). This system shows the planets' motion relative to the ecliptic, the apparent path the Sun follows during the year. An alternate system,…

The phenomenon of colour constancy in human visual perception keeps surface colours constant, despite changes in their reflected light due to changing illumination. Although colour constancy has evolved under a constrained subset of illuminations, it is unknown whether its underlying mechanisms, thought to involve multiple components from retina to cortex, are optimised for particular environmental variations. Here we demonstrate a new method for investigating colour constancy using illumination matching in real scenes which, unlike previous methods using surface matching and simulated scenes, allows testing of multiple, real illuminations. We use real scenes consisting of solid familiar or unfamiliar objects against uniform or variegated backgrounds and compare discrimination performance for typical illuminations from the daylight chromaticity locus (approximately blue-yellow) and atypical spectra from an orthogonal locus (approximately red-green, at correlated colour temperature 6700 K), all produced in real time by a 10-channel LED illuminator. We find that discrimination of illumination changes is poorer along the daylight locus than the atypical locus, and is poorest particularly for bluer illumination changes, demonstrating conversely that surface colour constancy is best for blue daylight illuminations. Illumination discrimination is also enhanced, and therefore colour constancy diminished, for uniform backgrounds, irrespective of the object type. These results are not explained by statistical properties of the scene signal changes at the retinal level. We conclude that high-level mechanisms of colour constancy are biased for the blue daylight illuminations and variegated backgrounds to which the human visual system has typically been exposed.

Full Text Available The phenomenon of colour constancy in human visual perception keeps surface colours constant, despite changes in their reflected light due to changing illumination. Although colour constancy has evolved under a constrained subset of illuminations, it is unknown whether its underlying mechanisms, thought to involve multiple components from retina to cortex, are optimised for particular environmental variations. Here we demonstrate a new method for investigating colour constancy using illumination matching in real scenes which, unlike previous methods using surface matching and simulated scenes, allows testing of multiple, real illuminations. We use real scenes consisting of solid familiar or unfamiliar objects against uniform or variegated backgrounds and compare discrimination performance for typical illuminations from the daylight chromaticity locus (approximately blue-yellow and atypical spectra from an orthogonal locus (approximately red-green, at correlated colour temperature 6700 K, all produced in real time by a 10-channel LED illuminator. We find that discrimination of illumination changes is poorer along the daylight locus than the atypical locus, and is poorest particularly for bluer illumination changes, demonstrating conversely that surface colour constancy is best for blue daylight illuminations. Illumination discrimination is also enhanced, and therefore colour constancy diminished, for uniform backgrounds, irrespective of the object type. These results are not explained by statistical properties of the scene signal changes at the retinal level. We conclude that high-level mechanisms of colour constancy are biased for the blue daylight illuminations and variegated backgrounds to which the human visual system has typically been exposed.

Radio emission from coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is a direct tracer of particle acceleration in the inner heliosphere and potential magnetic connections from the lower solar corona to the larger heliosphere. Energized electrons excite Langmuir waves, which then convert into intense radio emission at the local plasma frequency, with the most intense acceleration thought to occur within 20 RS. The radio emission from CMEs is quite strong such that only a relatively small number of antennas is required to detect and map it, but many aspects of this particle acceleration and transport remain poorly constrained. Ground-based arrays would be quite capable of tracking the radio emission associated with CMEs, but absorption by the Earth's ionosphere limits the frequency coverage of ground-based arrays (ν ≳ 15 MHz), which in turn limits the range of solar distances over which they can track the radio emission (≲ 3RS). The state-of-the-art for tracking such emission from space is defined by single antennas (Wind/WAVES, Stereo/SWAVES), in which the tracking is accomplished by assuming a frequency-to-density mapping; there has been some success in triangulating the emission between the spacecraft, but considerable uncertainties remain. We describe the Sun Radio Imaging Space Experiment (SunRISE) mission concept: A constellation of small spacecraft in a geostationary graveyard orbit designed to localize and track radio emissions in the inner heliosphere. Each spacecraft would carry a receiving system for observations below 25 MHz, and SunRISE would produce the first images of CMEs more than a few solar radii from the Sun. Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The azimuthal angle distributions of neutral pions at midrapidity from Au+Au reactions at 1 GeV/nucleon incident energy have been measured. An enhanced emission of pi0's perpendicular to the reaction plane is observed. The azimuthal asymmetry is dependent on the pi0 momentum: the pi0 spectrum perpen

We demonstrate the utility of laser illuminated imaging for clandestine night time surveillance from a simulated airborne platform at standoff ranges in excess 20 km. In order to reduce the necessary laser per pulse energy required for illumination at such long ranges, and to mitigate atmospheric turbulence effects on image resolution, we have investigated a unique multi-frame post-processing technique. It is shown that in the presence of atmospheric turbulence and coherent speckle effects, this approach can produce superior results to conventional scene flood illumination.

A new approach for photorealistic rendering of a class of objects at arbitrary illumination is presented. The approach of the authors relies entirely on image based rendering techniques. A scheme is utilized for re-illumination of objects based on linear combination of low dimensional image representations. The minimum rendering condition of technique of the authors is three sample images under varying illumination of a reference object and a single input image of an interested object. Important properties of this approach are its simplicity, robustness and speediness. Experimental results validate the proposed rendering approach.

Full Text Available Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation is an ancient and sacred yogic technique of India for expressing gratitude to the Sun. Surya Namaskar is a set of 12 Asanas (postures, It is done preferably in the morning while facing the rising sun. There are numerous health benefits of Surya Namaskar for different system of the body specially musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, nervous system, respiratory and endocrinal. The heart, liver, intestine, stomach, chest, throat, legs and backbone are main benefited organs. By practicing Surya Namaskar each and every cell of body get revitalize and regenerated, therefore it is highly recommended by all yoga experts for healthy routine life. The regular practice of Surya Namaskar improves blood circulation throughout the body, maintains health and makes the body disease-free. Regular practice of Surya Namaskar gives strength, flexibility and vitality to the body. Sun Salutation asanas help to burn extra body fat on belly, buttocks and back by modulating endocrinal system. It also helps to regulate menstrual cycles among women and also facilitate an easy childbirth. Apart from these benefits of Surya Namaskar also help to keep the mind stress free, calm and illuminated. Thus, a regular practice of Surya Namaskar is highly recommended to keep the body and mind healthy. Though the Surya Namaskar steps are very scientific and practical science ancient time but still it needs advance modern scientific justification to spread it globally, keeping this thing into the mind the present review has been framed to revalidate sacred steps of Surya Namaskar on the basis of available evidence based studies.

The azimuthal plasma current in a magnetic nozzle of a radiofrequency plasma thruster is experimentally identified by measuring the plasma-induced magnetic field. The axial plasma momentum increases over about 20 cm downstream of the thruster exit due to the Lorentz force arising from the azimuthal current. The measured current shows that the azimuthal current is given by the sum of the electron diamagnetic drift and \\mathbf{E}× \\mathbf{B} drift currents, where the latter component decreases with an increase in the magnetic field strength; hence the azimuthal current approaches the electron diamagnetic drift one for the strong magnetic field. The Lorentz force calculated from the measured azimuthal plasma current and the radial magnetic field is smaller than the directly measured force exerted to the magnetic field, which indicates the existence of a non-negligible Lorentz force in the source tube.

An experimental investigation into the effect of azimuthal variance of chevrons and fluidically enhanced chevrons applied to supersonic jets is presented. Flow field measurements of streamwise and cross-stream particle imaging velocimetry were employed to determine the causes of noise reduction, which was demonstrated through acoustic measurements. Results were obtained in the over- and under- expanded regimes, and at the design condition, though emphasis was placed on the overexpanded regime due to practical application. Surveys of chevron geometry, number, and arrangement were undertaken in an effort to reduce noise and/or incurred performance penalties. Penetration was found to be positively correlated with noise reduction in the overexpanded regime, and negatively correlated in underexpanded operation due to increased effective penetration and high frequency penalty, respectively. The effect of arrangement indicated the beveled configuration achieved optimal abatement in the ideally and underexpanded regimes due to superior BSAN reduction. The symmetric configuration achieved optimal overexpanded noise reduction due to LSS suppression from improved vortex persistence. Increases in chevron number generally improved reduction of all noise components for lower penetration configurations. Higher penetration configurations reached levels of saturation in the four chevron range, with the potential to introduce secondary shock structures and generate additional noise with higher number. Alternation of penetration generated limited benefit, with slight reduction of the high frequency penalty caused by increased shock spacing. The combination of alternating penetration with beveled and clustered configurations achieved comparable noise reduction to the standard counterparts. Analysis of the entire data set indicated initial improvements with projected area that saturated after a given level and either plateaued or degraded with additional increases. Optimal reductions

Billy Day, a Tunica/Biloxi, recently described the significance of the sun for Caddoan people. Day quoted an "old Caddo relative" of his who said: "I used to go outside and hold my hands up and bless myself with the sun--'a'hat.' Well, I can't do that anymore because they say we are sun worshipers. We didn't worship the sun. We worshiped what was…

Concern about climate change reaches a political peak at a UN conference in Kyoto, 1-10 December, but behind the scenes the science is in turmoil. A challenge to the hypothesis that greenhouse gases are responsible for global warming comes from the discovery that cosmic rays from the Galaxy are involved in making clouds (Svensmark and Friis-Christensen, 1997). During the 20th Century the wind from the Sun has grown stronger and the count of cosmic rays has diminished. With fewer clouds, the EarthÕs surface has warmed up. This surprising mechanism explains the link between the Sun and climate change that astronomers and geophysicists have suspected for 200 years.

We report a series of simulation studies which extends pattern-illuminated Fourier ptychography microscopy by integrating with the nonlinearity arising from saturation of the fluorophore excited state for super-resolution fluorescence imaging. This extended technique, termed Saturated pattern-illuminated Fourier ptychography (SpiFP) microscopy, could achieve a resolution four times that of wide field when the illuminating light intensity approaches the saturation threshold in simulations. Increasing light intensity leads to further resolution enhancement. In order to demonstrate the performance of SpiFP, we make a comparison between SpiFP and saturated structure illumination microscopy in simulations, and prove that the SpiFP exhibits superior robustness to noise, aberration correcting ability, and pattern’s flexibility. Introducing the saturation of the fluorescent emission brings in notable improvements in imaging performance, implying its potential in nanoscale-sized biological observations by wide-field microscopy.

Total eclipses of the sun offer research opportunities in a variety of sciences. Some of the advances in solar physics resulting from eclipse observations are discussed. Experiments at the total eclipse of 16 February 1980 in India are also described. These included a test of general relativity, studies in coronal physics, investigations of solar prominences, diameter measurements, a search for interplanetary dust, a study of the gravity waves in the earth's atmosphere, and experiments on the biological effects on animals and humans.

In this note, I revisit integrals over $\\SU(N)$ of the form $ \\int DU\\, U_{i_1j_1}\\cdots U_{i_pj_p}\\Ud_{k_1l_1}\\cdots \\Ud_{k_nl_n}$. While the case $p=n$ is well known, it seems that explicit expressions for $p=n+N$ had not appeared in the literature. Similarities and differences, in particular in the large $N$ limit, between the two cases are discussed

Energy from the sun is abundant and free. Solar energy is in essence electromagnetic radiation emitted from the sun. Earth's climate, hydrologic systems, and ecosystems all derive from the sun. Other forms of renewable power such as wind, wave, biomass, and hydro are an indirect function of solar radiation.

The Sun is an account of the many ways in which our nearest star affects our planet, how its influence has changed over the last few centuries and millennia, and the extent to which we can predict its future impact. The Sun's rays foster the formation of Vitamin D by our bodies, but it can also promote skin cancer, cataracts, and mutations in our DNA. Besides providing the warmth and light essential to most animal and plant life, solar energy contributes substantially to global warming. Although the charged particles of the solar wind shield us from harmful cosmic rays, solar storms may damage artificial satellites and cripple communication systems and computer networks. The Sun is the ideal renewable energy source, but its exploitation is still bedevilled by the problems of storage and distribution. Our nearest star, in short, is a complex machine which needs to be treated with caution, and this book will equip every reader with the knowledge that is required to understand the benefits and dangers it can bri...

For more than four decades, scientists have been trying to find an answer to one of the most fundamental questions in paleoclimatology, the `faint young Sun problem'. For the early Earth, models of stellar evolution predict a solar energy input to the climate system which is about 25% lower than today. This would result in a completely frozen world over the first two billion years in the history of our planet, if all other parameters controlling Earth's climate had been the same. Yet there is ample evidence for the presence of liquid surface water and even life in the Archean (3.8 to 2.5 billion years before present), so some effect (or effects) must have been compensating for the faint young Sun. A wide range of possible solutions have been suggested and explored during the last four decades, with most studies focusing on higher concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane or ammonia. All of these solutions present considerable difficulties, however, so the faint young Sun prob...

A novel track joint was developed for the azimuth track of the 50-m diameter Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) now under construction in Mexico at an elevation of 4,600 m. The track, which is 430 mm wide by 230 mm deep, must be flat to within +/- 0.3 mm, and the material hardness at least 290 Brinell. This design uses a partial penetration narrow gap groove weld on the top surface of the track and a splice plate welded to the underside of the track. Pre-camber of the joint compensates for weld shrinkage which is small because of the use of the narrow gap groove weld. The residual deviations from flatness are reduced to the required tolerance by adjusting anchor bolts using an optimization procedure. The feasibility of the design with respect to fabrication, strength, fatigue, and alignment was demonstrated by detailed finite element analyses, trial welding and alignment of full scale joints, and testing of the mechanical properties of the joint and adjacent metal.

Opher et al. (2015), Drake et al. (2015) have shown that the heliospheric magnetic field results in formation of two-jet structure of the solar wind flow in the inner heliosheath, i.e. in the subsonic region between the heliospheric termination shock and the heliopause. In this scenario the heliopause has a tube-like topology as compared with a sheet-like topology in the most models of the global heliosphere (e.g. Izmodenov and Alexashov, 2015). In this paper we explore the two-jet scenario for a simplified astrosphere in which 1) the star is at rest with respect to the circumstellar medium, 2) radial magnetic field is neglected as compared with azimuthal component, 3) the stellar wind outflow is assumed to be hypersonic (both the Mach number and the Alfv\\'enic Mach number are much greater than unity at the inflow boundary). We have shown that the problem can be formulated in dimensionless form, in which the solution depends only on one dimensionless parameter epsilon that is reciprocal of the Alfv\\'enic Mach...

The magnetorotational instability (MRI) is considered to be one of the most powerful sources of turbulence in hydrodynamically stable quasi-Keplerian flows, such as those governing accretion disk flows. Although the linear stability of these flows with applied external magnetic field has been studied for decades, the influence of the instability on the outward angular momentum transport, necessary for the accretion of the disk, is still not well known. In this work we model Keplerian rotation with Taylor-Couette flow and imposed azimuthal magnetic field using both linear and nonlinear approaches. We present scalings of instability with Hartmann and Reynolds numbers via linear analysis and direct numerical simulations (DNS) for the two magnetic Prandtl numbers of $1.4 \\cdot 10^{-6}$ and $1$. Inside of the instability domains modes with different axial wavenumbers dominate, resulting in sub-domains of instabilities, which appear different for each $Pm$. The DNS show the emergence of 1- and 2-frequency spatio-te...

A typical high-resolution encoder interpolator relies on careful mechanical alignment of the encoder read-heads and tight electrical tolerances of the signal processing electronics to ensure linearity. As the interpolation factor increases, maintaining these tight mechanical and electrical tolerances becomes impractical. The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) is designed to utilize strip-type encoders on the main axes. Because of the very large scale of the telescope, the accumulative length of the azimuth and elevation encoder strips exceeds 80 meters, making optical tape prohibitively expensive. Consequently, the designers of the LBT incorporated the far less expensive Farrand Controls Inductosyn® linear strip encoder to encode the positions of the main axes and the instrument rotators. Since the cycle pitch of these encoders is very large compared to that of optical strip encoders, the interpolation factor must also be large in order to achieve the 0.005 arcsecond encoder resolution as specified. The authors present a description of the innovative DSP-based hardware / software solution that adaptively characterizes and removes common systematic cycle-to-cycle encoder interpolation errors. These errors can be caused by mechanical misalignment, encoder manufacturing flaws, variations in electrical gain, signal offset or cross-coupling of the encoder signals. Simulation data are presented to illustrate the performance of the interpolation algorithm, and telemetry data are presented to demonstrate the actual performance of the LBT main-axis encoder system.

Fracture weakness prediction is an important task in fractured reservoir analysis. We propose a new method to use seismic amplitude differences between azimuths to estimate the normal and tangential fracture weaknesses under the assumption that the anisotropic perturbation of the reflection coefficient is mainly induced by fractures. We first derive an expression of the reflection coefficient in terms of the normal and tangential fracture weaknesses for the case of an interface separating two fractured media. Then we use the linear fitting method to get the relationship between the two fracture weaknesses, and change the variables to precondition the inversion problem. The Bayesian framework, under the hypothesis of a Cauchy distribution prior information and a Gaussian distribution likelihood function, is employed to construct the objective function, and an initial low-frequency constraint is introduced to the objective function to make the inversion more stable. The conjugate gradient algorithm is adopted to solve the inverse problem. Tests on both synthetic and real data demonstrate that the normal and tangential fracture weaknesses can be estimated reasonably in the case of seismic data containing a moderate noise, and our inversion approach appears to be a stable method for predicting the fracture weaknesses.

Elemental abundance patterns in the Galactic disk constrain theories of the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. HII region abundances are the result of billions of years of chemical evolution. We made radio recombination line and continuum measurements of 21 HII regions located between Galactic azimuth Az = 90-130 degree, a previously unexplored region. We derive the plasma electron temperatures using the line-to-continuum ratios and use them as proxies for the nebular [O/H] abundances, because in thermal equilibrium the abundance of the coolants (O, N, and other heavy elements) in the ionized gas sets the electron temperature, with high abundances producing low temperatures. Combining these data with our previous work produces a sample of 90 HII regions with high quality electron temperature determinations. We derive kinematic distances in a self-consistent way for the entire sample. The radial gradient in [O/H] is -0.082 +/- 0.014 dex/kpc for Az = 90-130 degree, about a factor of two higher than the a...

Full Text Available Automatic face recognition remains an interesting but challenging computer vision open problem. Poor illumination is considered as one of the major issue, since illumination changes cause large variation in the facial features. To resolve this, illumination normalization preprocessing techniques are employed in this paper to enhance the face recognition rate. The methods such as Histogram Equalization (HE, Gamma Intensity Correction (GIC, Normalization chain and Modified Homomorphic Filtering (MHF are used for preprocessing. Owing to great success, the texture features are commonly used for face recognition. But these features are severely affected by lighting changes. Hence texture based models Local Binary Pattern (LBP, Local Derivative Pattern (LDP, Local Texture Pattern (LTP and Local Tetra Patterns (LTrPs are experimented under different lighting conditions. In this paper, illumination invariant face recognition technique is developed based on the fusion of illumination preprocessing with local texture descriptors. The performance has been evaluated using YALE B and CMU-PIE databases containing more than 1500 images. The results demonstrate that MHF based normalization gives significant improvement in recognition rate for the face images with large illumination conditions.

With summer in full swing and the sun is naturally on our minds, what better time to take advantage of a host of free materials provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Sun Wise program. Sun Wise aims to teach students and teachers about the stratospheric ozone layer, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and how to be safe while in the Sun.…

In this paper, we present a way to render images in real time, with both direct and indirect illumination. Our approach uses precomputed indirect illumination images, produced at certain intervals, which need not be constant. When rendering a scene, the two closest images are then interpolated...... and added to the direct illumination to produce the total illumination. Depending on the type of image produced, the algorithm allows a camera to move, and even objects to be added or modified at runtime to some extent. Finally, we will see that the amount of data to store and process can also be reduced...

Under the condition of weak anisotropy, the relation of P-wave anisotropy in direction to fractures of coal seams was researched in order to forecast the density and the direction of the fractures. Although the approximate solution by Rüger is suitable for thick reservoirs, it has some limitations for the composite reflected wave from both roofs and floors of coal seams, as well as multiple reflections. So first, the phase velocity and group velocity as well as their travel time were calculated about the reflected P-wave of the coal seam. Then, the anisotropic coefficients of both roofs and floors were calculated by Rüger formulae and last, the section versus azimuth in fixed offset can be gotten by convolution. In addition, the relation of amplitude of the composite reflected wave to azimuth angle was discussed. The forward modelling results of the coal azimuth anisotropy show these: 1) the coal seam is the strong reflecting layer, but the change of the reflectivity caused by the azimuth anisotropy is smaller; 2) if the azimuth angle is parallel to the crack strike, the reflectivity reaches up to the maximum absolute value, however, if the azimuth angle is perpendicular to the crack strike, the absolute value of the reflection coefficient is minimum; and 3)the reflection coefficient is the cosine function of the azimuth angle and the period is π.

We developed a novel cement evaluation logging tool, named the azimuthally acoustic bond tool (AABT), which uses a phased-arc array transmitter with azimuthal detection capability. We combined numerical simulations and field tests to verify the AABT tool. The numerical simulation results showed that the radiation direction of the subarray corresponding to the maximum amplitude of the first arrival matches the azimuth of the channeling when it is behind the casing. With larger channeling size in the circumferential direction, the amplitude difference of the casing wave at different azimuths becomes more evident. The test results showed that the AABT can accurately locate the casing collars and evaluate the cement bond quality with azimuthal resolution at the casing—cement interface, and can visualize the size, depth, and azimuth of channeling. In the case of good casing—cement bonding, the AABT can further evaluate the cement bond quality at the cement—formation interface with azimuthal resolution by using the amplitude map and the velocity of the formation wave.

Work on classical closed orbits in the diamagnetic Kepler problem is predominately focused on the chaos observed in the polar launch angle as opposed to the azimuthal launch angle. This is due to atomic systems, along with widely studied external-field geometries (parallel magnetic and electric fields or pure magnetic field), being uniform in azimuthal angle, rendering the azimuthal angle unimportant. In the case of crossed magnetic and electric fields, this is no longer the case, and closed orbits do present an azimuthal launch angle dependence. In atomic systems, due to their spherical symmetry, the electric-field orientation in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field does not affect the spectrum of orbits. However, in shallow n -type donors in anisotropic semiconductors such as silicon, the orientation of the external fields with respect to conduction-band valleys will be important. In this work we examine the Garton-Tomkins orbit in crossed magnetic and electric fields, and analyze how it and its harmonics' azimuthal dependencies behave through variation of the scaled field or scaled energy. At low scaled fields, harmonics have either twofold or fourfold azimuthal dependencies determined by the rotational symmetry of the individual harmonics. As the scaled field or scaled energy is increased, several harmonics undergo significant bifurcations, resulting in large azimuthal angular regions of essentially closed orbits, which will lead to strong resonances in experimental work.

Athough terahertz (THz) radiation from semiconductor surfaces illuminated by femtosecond laser pulses was observed a long time ago, the mechanisms responsible for this radiation still remains questionable, especially in narrow band gap semiconductors. Four different crystallographic orientation {(1 0 0), (1 1 0), (1 1 1) and (1 1 2)} InSb samples were analyzed in this investigation. THz amplitude dependences on the excitation wavelength and azimuthal angle are presented in this paper. We have shown that the second order nonlinear effect—optical rectification—is responsible for THz radiation in InSb. The microscopic origin of this effect is related to the orientation of electrons momenta by the optical radiation and anisotropy of the conduction band at high energies. Monte Carlo simulations have shown that electric field screening by intrinsic carriers diminishes the contribution of the third order nonlinear effect in this material.

Hyperspectral imaging has emerged as an important tool for analysing vegetation data in agricultural applications. Recently, low altitude and ground based hyperspectral imaging solutions have come to the fore, providing very high resolution data for mapping and studying large areas of crops in detail. However, these platforms introduce a unique set of challenges that need to be overcome to ensure consistent, accurate and timely acquisition of data. One particular problem is dealing with changes in environmental illumination while operating with natural light under cloud cover, which can have considerable effects on spectral shape. In the past this has been commonly achieved by imaging known reference targets at the time of data acquisition, direct measurement of irradiance, or atmospheric modelling. While capturing a reference panel continuously or very frequently allows accurate compensation for illumination changes, this is often not practical with ground based platforms, and impossible in aerial applications. This paper examines the use of an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) to gather high resolution hyperspectral imaging data of crops under natural illumination. A process of illumination compensation is performed to extract the inherent reflectance properties of the crops, despite variable illumination. This work adapts a previously developed subspace model approach to reflectance and illumination recovery. Though tested on a ground vehicle in this paper, it is applicable to low altitude unmanned aerial hyperspectral imagery also. The method uses occasional observations of reference panel training data from within the same or other datasets, which enables a practical field protocol that minimises in-field manual labour. This paper tests the new approach, comparing it against traditional methods. Several illumination compensation protocols for high volume ground based data collection are presented based on the results. The findings in this paper are

Full Text Available Chlorella vulgaris Buitenzorg cultivation using three bubble column photo bioreactors arranged in series with a volume of 200 mL for 130 hours shows an increase of biomass production of Chlorella vulgaris Buitenzorg up to 1.20 times and a decrease of the ability of CO2 fixation compared to single reactor at a periodic sunillumination cycle. The operation conditions on cultivation are as following: T, 29.0oC; P,1 atm.; UG, 2.40 m/h; CO2, 10%; Benneck medium; and illumination source by Phillip Halogen Lamp 20W /12V/ 50Hz. Other research parameters such as microbial carbon dioxide transferred rate (qco2, CO2 transferred rate (CTR, energy consumption for cellular formation (Ex, and cultural bicarbonate species concentration [HCO3] also give better results on series of reactor.

Following the completion of the mechanical aspect of the azimuth track refurbishment project (described in the October 2007 Newsletter), it was necessary to character- ize the performance of the new track and implement a new pointing model prior to the resumption of scheduled operations. The Precision Telescope Control System (PTCS) team was responsible for this effort, which required significant planning and development beginning a year ago in January 2007. Although there was high confidence that the refurbishment would yield a flatter and more resilient track, the possibility of remaining low-level features spurred the team to develop a robust technique for measuring track features prior to the April 30 shutdown. To characterize the track, the centerpiece instrument is a pair of two-axis gas-damped capacitive-readout inclinometers mounted on the ends of the elevation axle. With the new track, both the large scale (tens of degrees) and small scale structure has been greatly reduced, with an rms of 0.94 arcseconds (equivalent to 5.7 thousandths of an inch at the track radius). A repeated measurement of the new track over the timescale of a week has shown the remaining features to be stable, but it will be monitored occasionally during the coming year. The nighttime blind pointing performance now shows a standard deviation of 3.4" in cross-elevation, 3.7" in elevation, and 2.0 mm in focus. These rms values are improved by about 1" in elevation and 1 mm in focus over the previous model when compared under the same conditions in fall 2006 and spring 2007.

Opher et al., Drake, Swisdak and Opher have shown that the heliospheric magnetic field results in formation of two-jet structure of the solar wind flow in the inner heliosheath, i.e. in the subsonic region between the heliospheric termination shock (TS) and the heliopause. In this scenario, the heliopause has a tube-like topology as compared with a sheet-like topology in the most models of the global heliosphere. In this paper, we explore the two-jet scenario for a simplified astrosphere in which (1) the star is at rest with respect to the circumstellar medium, (2) radial magnetic field is neglected as compared with azimuthal component and (3) the stellar wind outflow is assumed to be hypersonic (both the Mach number and the Alfvénic Mach number are much greater than unity at the inflow boundary). We have shown that the problem can be formulated in dimensionless form, in which the solution depends only on one dimensionless parameter ε that is reciprocal of the Alfvénic Mach number at the inflow boundary. This parameter is proportional to stellar magnetic field. We present the numerical solution of the problem for various values of ε. Three first integrals of the governing ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations are presented, and we make use of them in order to get the plasma distribution in the jets. Simple relations between distances to the TS, astropause and the size of the jet are established. These relations allow us to determine the stellar magnetic field from the geometrical pattern of the jet-like astrosphere.

We show broadband azimuthal polarization state conversion using an entirely connectorized step-index fiber with a central gold nanowire. This device provides broadband polarization discrimination of the low-loss TE01 fiber mode with respect to all other modes, and converts light into the azimuthal polarization state, resulting in a high beam quality and an azimuthal conversion efficiency of 37%. The device is monolithically integrated into fiber circuitry, representing a new platform for plasmonics and fiber optics and enabling important applications in super-resolution microscopy, laser tweezing, and plasmonic superfocussing.

A new method that is applicable to local seismic networks to estimate the azimuth and slowness of teleseismic signals is introduced in the paper. The method is based on the correlation between the arrival times and station positions. The analyzed results indicate that the azimuth and slowness of teleseismic signals can be accurately estimated by the method. Average errors for azimuth and slowness measurements obtained by this method using data of Xi(an Digital Telemetry Seismic Network are 2.0o and 0.34 s/(o), respectively. The conclusions drawn from this study indicate that this method may be very useful to interpret teleseismic records of local seismic networks.

We present both experimentally and theoretically the transformation of radially and azimuthally polarized vector beams when they propagate through a biaxial crystal and are transformed by the conical refraction phenomenon. We show that, at the focal plane, the transverse pattern is formed by a ring-like light structure with an azimuthal node, being this node found at diametrically opposite points of the ring for radial/azimuthal polarizations. We also prove that the state of polarization of the transformed beams is conical refraction-like, i.e. that every two diametrically opposite points of the light ring are linearly orthogonally polarized.

This paper reports that using cartesian heliostat field coordinates analytical expressions were derived for the heliostat tilt angle s, and heliostat azimuth angle {gamma} (clockwise from south). These expressions are dependent on the field cartesian coordinates of the center of the heliostat and the solar zenith and azimuth angles (clockwise from south), {theta}{sub z} and {Psi}, respectively. Here, cylindrical coordinates are conveniently used to derive the expressions for the heliostat angles s and {gamma}. The expression of {gamma}is used to construct the so-called heliostat orientation protractor. The protractor is a useful tool to determine the instantaneous heliostat azimuth angle as will be illustrated.

The focus of this paper is optimizing the recognition of vehicles in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery using multiple SAR recognizers at different look angles. The variance of SAR scattering center locations with target azimuth leads to recognition system results at different azimuths that are independent, even for small azimuth deltas. Extensive experimental recognition results are presented in terms of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to show the effects of multiple look angles on recognition performance for MSTAR vehicle targets with configuration variants, articulation, and occlusion.

We developed an azimuthally polarized pulse-periodic CO2 laser for high-performance drilling applications. We discovered an anomalous enhancement in the drilling rate with the azimuthally polarized beam compared to that with radially or randomly polarized beams. We drilled 0.45 mm-thick carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) using a focusing lens with a focal length of 50 mm and a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.09. The conditions other than polarization states were identical for all the experiments. The azimuthally polarized beam exhibited a drilling rate more than 10 times greater on average than those of the other two polarizations.

The dust in the atmosphere above the Mars Pathfinder landing site produced a bright, red sky that increases in redness toward the horizon at midday. There is also evidence for an absorption band in the scattered light from the sky at 860 nm. A model of the sky brightness has been developed [Markiewicz et al., this issue] and tested against Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) observations of calibration targets on the lander. The resulting model has been used to quantify the total diffuse flux onto a surface parallel to the local level for several solar elevation angles and optical depths. The model shows that the diffuse illumination in shadowed areas is strongly reddened while areas illuminated directly by the Sun (and the blue forward scattering peak) see a more solar-type spectrum, in agreement with Viking and IMP observations. Quantitative corrections for the reddening in shadowed areas are demonstrated. It is shown quantitatively that the unusual appearance of the rock Yogi (the east face of which appeared relatively blue in images taken during the morning but relatively red during the afternoon) can be explained purely by the changing illumination geometry. We conclude that any spectrophotometric analysis of surfaces on Mars must take into account the diffuse flux. Specifically, the reflectances of surfaces viewed under different illumination geometries cannot be investigated for spectral diversity unless a correction has been applied which removes the influence of the reddened diffuse flux. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union.

Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology has come a long way, with multi-junction solar cell efficiencies now reaching up to 44.4%. Front contact grid design, crucial for improving efficiency, is typically performed for uniform illumination, but this does not account for the real world conditions of non-homogeneous irradiance distributions. In this work, we aim to optimize finger spacing for a linear grid under non-uniform illumination by using Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE) analysis. A two-dimensional distributed resistance model is used to simulate a lattice matched, triple-junction solar cell whose design parameters are determined by curve-fitting current-voltage curves from each sub-cell to a two-diode equivalent-circuit model. Cell efficiency is considered to be a unimodal function that varies with finger spacing so a golden-section search optimization algorithm is used to determine the optimal spacing. Various Gaussian profiles are used to simulate non-uniform illumination and their effects on device performance. Designs based on optimal spacing for non-uniform illumination show an efficiency increase of more than 0.5% absolute at concentrations greater than 500 suns.

There is increasing interest among universities in the scientific and educational possibilities of picosatellites base on the CubeSat 5 concept. Due to sever mass and dimension constraints place on this type of satellites, new approaches and ideas regarding different systems arises to accommodate...... DTUsat sun sensors are needed along with a magnetometer to obtain unambiguous attitude determination for the ACDS and the payloads - an electrodynamic tether and a camera. The accuracy needed was not obtainable by employing conventional attitude sensors. Hence a linear slit sensor was designed...

It is a widely discussed hypothesis that Viking seafarers might have been able to locate the position of the occluded sun by means of dichroic or birefringent crystals, the mysterious sunstones, with which they could analyze skylight polarization. Although the atmospheric optical prerequisites and certain aspects of the efficiency of this sky-polarimetric Viking navigation have been investigated, the accuracy of the main steps of this method has not been quantitatively examined. To fill in this gap, we present here the results of a planetarium experiment in which we measured the azimuth and elevation errors of localization of the invisible sun. In the planetarium sun localization was performed in two selected celestial points on the basis of the alignments of two small sections of two celestial great circles passing through the sun. In the second step of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation the navigator needed to determine the intersection of two such celestial circles. We found that the position of the sun (solar elevation θ(S), solar azimuth φ(S)) was estimated with an average error of +0.6°≤Δθ≤+8.8° and -3.9°≤Δφ≤+2.0°. We also calculated the compass direction error when the estimated sun position is used for orienting with a Viking sun-compass. The northern direction (ω(North)) was determined with an error of -3.34°≤Δω(North)≤+6.29°. The inaccuracy of the second step of this navigation method was high (Δω(North)=-16.3°) when the solar elevation was 5°≤θ(S)≤25°, and the two selected celestial points were far from the sun (at angular distances 95°≤γ(1), γ(2)≤115°) and each other (125°≤δ≤145°). Considering only this second step, the sky-polarimetric navigation could be more accurate in the mid-summer period (June and July), when in the daytime the sun is high above the horizon for long periods. In the spring (and autumn) equinoctial period, alternative methods (using a twilight board, for example) might be more

This paper presents illumination analyses using the latest Earth-based radar digital elevation model (DEM) of the lunar south pole and an independently developed analytical tool. These results enable the optimum sizing of solar/energy storage lunar surface power systems since they quantify the timing and durations of illuminated and shadowed periods. Filtering and manual editing of the DEM based on comparisons with independent imagery were performed and a reduced resolution version of the DEM was produced to reduce the analysis time. A comparison of the DEM with lunar limb imagery was performed in order to validate the absolute heights over the polar latitude range, the accuracy of which affects the impact of long range, shadow-casting terrain. Average illumination and energy storage duration maps of the south pole region are provided for the worst and best case lunar day using the reduced resolution DEM. Average illumination fractions and energy storage durations are presented for candidate low energy storage duration south pole sites. The best site identified using the reduced resolution DEM required a 62 hr energy storage duration using a fast recharge power system. Solar and horizon terrain elevations as well as illumination fraction profiles are presented for the best identified site and the data for both the reduced resolution and high resolution DEMs compared. High resolution maps for three low energy storage duration areas are presented showing energy storage duration for the worst case lunar day, surface height, and maximum absolute surface slope.

Dr. Alexander G. Kosovichev, a senior research scientist from Stanford University, and Dr. Valentina V. Zharkova from Glasgow (United Kingdom) University found the tell-tale seismic signature in data on the Sun's surface collected by the Michelson Doppler Imager onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft immediately following a moderate-sized flare on July 9, 1996. "Although the flare was a moderate one, it still released an immense amount of energy," said Dr. Craig Deforest, a researcher with the SOHO project. "The energy released is equal to completely covering the Earth's continents with a yard of dynamite and detonating it all at once." SOHO is a joint project of the European Space Agency and NASA. The finding is reported in the May 28 issue of the journal Nature, and is the subject of a press conference at the spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Boston, Mass., May 27. The solar quake that the science team recorded looks much like ripples spreading from a rock dropped into a pool of water. But over the course of an hour, the solar waves traveled for a distance equal to 10 Earth diameters before fading into the fiery background of the Sun's photosphere. Unlike water ripples that travel outward at a constant velocity, the solar waves accelerated from an initial speed of 22,000 miles per hour to a maximum of 250,000 miles per hour before disappearing. "People have looked for evidence of seismic waves from flares before, but they didn't have a theory so they didn't know where to look," says Kosovichev. Several years ago Kosovichev and Zharkova developed a theory that can explain how a flare, which explodes in space above the Sun's surface, can generate a major seismic wave in the Sun's interior. According to the currently accepted model of solar flares, the primary explosion creates high-energy electrons (electrically charged subatomic particles). These are funneled down into a magnetic flux tube, an invisible tube of magnetic

Active regions are open wounds in the Sun's surface. Seismic oscillations from the interior pass through them into the atmosphere, changing their nature in the process to fast and slow magneto-acoustic waves. The fast waves then partially reflect and partially mode convert to upgoing and downgoing Alfv\\'en waves. The reflected fast and downgoing Alfv\\'en waves then re-enter the interior through the active regions that spawned them, infecting the surface seismology with signatures of the atmosphere. Using numerical simulations of waves in uniform magnetic fields, we calculate the upward acoustic and Alfv\\'enic losses in the atmosphere as functions of field inclination and wave orientation as well as the Time-Distance `travel time' perturbations, and show that they are related. Travel time perturbations relative to quiet Sun can exceed 40 seconds in 1 kG magnetic field. It is concluded that active region seismology is indeed significantly infected by waves leaving and re-entering the interior through magnetic w...

The present disclosure relates to an illumination system for endoscopic applications comprising at least one substantially monochromatic light source having a predefined central wavelength between 400 and 500 nm or between 500 and 550 nm, an optical transmission path adapted to guide light...... emanating from the light source to an endoscopic region of examination, and an optical band-rejection filter, wherein the illumination system is adapted to illuminate at least a part of the region of examination by generating autofluorescence in surrounding tissue, and the band-rejection filter is adapted...... of a substantially monochromatic light source having a predefined central wavelength between 400 and 550 nm, means for guiding light from the substantially monochromatic light source towards at least a part of the tissue, and at least one band-rejection filter adapted to attenuate at least said central wavelength...

Quantum illumination consists in shining quantum light on a target region immersed in a bright thermal bath with the aim of detecting the presence of a possible low-reflective object. If the signal is entangled with the receiver, then a suitable choice of the measurement offers a gain with respect to the optimal classical protocol employing coherent states. Here, we tackle this detection problem by using quantum estimation techniques to measure the reflectivity parameter of the object, showing an enhancement in the signal-to-noise ratio up to 3 dB with respect to the classical case when implementing only local measurements. Our approach employs the quantum Fisher information to provide an upper bound for the error probability, supplies the concrete estimator saturating the bound, and extends the quantum illumination protocol to non-Gaussian states. As an example, we show how Schrödinger's cat states may be used for quantum illumination.

Problem to be adressed: Even with the implementation of the Eco-design directive (2005/32/EC) it is projected that the 20% energy reduction goal will not be reached in 2020. as a matter of fact, the electricity consumption in the illumination sector will not be changed from the levels of cosnsump......Problem to be adressed: Even with the implementation of the Eco-design directive (2005/32/EC) it is projected that the 20% energy reduction goal will not be reached in 2020. as a matter of fact, the electricity consumption in the illumination sector will not be changed from the levels...... of cosnsumption of 1990. To really get some savings, further improvements have to be done in the area of illumination systems. Our current research is aiming on fiinding- from an eco-designg perspective- precisly those alternative technological systems. Expected results: Withthe cooperation...

Fourier ptychography (FP) is a recently reported technique, for large field-of-view and high-resolution imaging. Specifically, FP captures a set of low-resolution images, under angularly varying illuminations, and stitches them together in the Fourier domain. One of FP's main disadvantages is its long capturing process, due to the requisite large number of incident illumination angles. In this Letter, utilizing the sparsity of natural images in the Fourier domain, we propose a highly efficient method, termed adaptive Fourier ptychography (AFP), which applies content adaptive illumination for FP, to capture the most informative parts of the scene's spatial spectrum. We validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the reported framework, with both simulated and real experiments. Results show that the proposed AFP could shorten the acquisition time of conventional FP, by around 30%-60%.

The sky is a very important component of the landscape that has been lost in our modern, overcrowded, and excessively illuminated cities. However, this was not the case in the past. Astronomy played a highly relevant role in urban planning, especially in the organization of sacred spaces which were later surrounded by extensive civil urban areas. Today, archaeoastronomy approaches the minds of our ancestors studying the starry landscape and how it is printed in the terrain by the visualization and the orientation of sacred buildings. The sun was indeed the most important component of that celestial landscape and was the primary focus within a large set of unique cultures of great historical significance. In particular, we will study and compare the case of three sun cities: Thebes (Belmonte et al. 2009, Belmonte 2012), Hattusha (Gonzalez-Garcia & Belmonte 2011), and Petra (Belmonte et al. 2013), capitals of Egypt in the Middle and New Kingdoms, the Hittite Empire, and the Nabataean Kingdom, respectively. We will briefly discuss each of these cultures and will scrutinize their capital cities, showing how their strategic geographical position and orography were of key importance, but also how solar observation, and related hierophanies, played a relevant role in the orientation and location of some of their most significant monuments. In particular, we will focus on the great temple of Amun-Re in Karnak, Temple 1 in Hattusha (presumably devoted to the Solar Goddess of Arinna), and the “Monastery” at Petra.

Using ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile, an international team of researchers [1] discovered a brown dwarf belonging to the 24th closest stellar system to the Sun. Brown dwarfs are intermediate objects that are neither stars nor planets. This object is the third closest brown dwarf to the Earth yet discovered, and one of the coolest, having a temperature of about 750 degrees Celsius. It orbits a very small star at about 4.5 times the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun. Its mass is estimated to be somewhere between 9 and 65 times the mass of Jupiter. At a time when astronomers are peering into the most distant Universe, looking at objects as far as 13 billion light-years away, one may think that our close neighbourhood would be very well known. Not so. Astronomers still find new star-like objects in our immediate vicinity. Using ESO's VLT, they just discovered a brown dwarf companion to the red star SCR 1845-6357, the 36th closest star to the Sun. ESO PR Photo 11/06 ESO PR Photo 11a/06 New Brown Dwarf in the Solar Neighbourhood (Artist's Impression) "This newly found brown dwarf is a valuable object because its distance is well known, allowing us to determine with precision its intrinsic brightness", said team member Markus Kasper (ESO). "Moreover, from its orbital motion, we should be able in a few years to estimate its mass. These properties are vital for understanding the nature of brown dwarfs." To discover this brown dwarf, the team used the high-contrast adaptive optics NACO Simultaneous Differential Imager (SDI [2]) on ESO's Very Large Telescope, an instrument specifically developed to search for extrasolar planets. The SDI camera enhances the ability of the VLT and its adaptive optics system to detect faint companions that would normally be lost in the glare of the primary star. In particular, the SDI camera provides additional, often very useful spectral information which can be used to determine a rough temperature for the object without follow

Full Text Available The radial degrees of freedom of the biphoton states that are produced in spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) basis are investigated, theoretically and experimentally. We calculated the theoretical azimuthal...

This book brings together experts in the field who present material on a number of important and growing topics including lighting, displays, solar concentrators. The first chapter provides an overview of the field of nonimagin and illumination optics. Included in this chapter are terminology, units, definitions, and descriptions of the optical components used in illumination systems. The next two chapters provide material within the theoretical domain, including etendue, etendue squeezing, and the skew invariant. The remaining chapters focus on growing applications. This entire field of

Visual sensing in arc welding has become more and more important, but still remains challenging because of the harsh environment with extremely strong illumination from the arc. This paper presents a low-cost camera-based sensor system, without using external Illumination, but nevertheless able...... to sense and model the weld pool. Central is a carefully selected optical filtering as well as an active contour-based tracking of the weld pool boundary. The system is able to extract the 2D shape of the weld pool in real time. The reported experiments show the feasibility of this approach....

A super-resolution technique based on structured illumination created by a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator (LCOS-SLM) is presented. Single and simultaneous pairs of tilted beams are generated to illuminate a target object. Resolution enhancement of an optical 4f system is demonstrated by using numerical simulations. The resulting intensity images are recorded at a charged couple device (CCD) and stored in the computer memory for further processing. One dimension enhancement can be performed with only 15 images. Two dimensional complete improvement requires 153 different images. The resolution of the optical system is extended three times compared to the band limited system.

Measurements of dijet azimuthal decorrelations in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using the CMS detector at the CERN LHC are presented. The analysis is based on an inclusive dijet event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.9 pb⁻¹. The results are compared to predictions from perturbative QCD calculations and various Monte Carlo event generators. The dijet azimuthal distributions are found to be sensitive to initial-state gluon radiation.

A linear to radial and/or azimuthal polarization converter (LRAC) has been inserted into the beam delivery of a micromachining station equipped with a picosecond laser system. Percussion drilling and helical drilling in steel have been performed using radially as well as azimuthally polarized infrared radiation at 1030 nm. The presented machining results are discussed on the basis of numerical simulations of the polarization-dependent beam propagation inside the fabricated capillaries.

Measurements of dijet azimuthal decorrelations in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using the CMS detector at the CERN LHC are presented. The analysis is based on an inclusive dijet event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.9 inverse picobarns. The results are compared to predictions from perturbative QCD calculations and various Monte Carlo event generators. The dijet azimuthal distributions are found to be sensitive to initial-state gluon radiation.

The authors have studied correlations between two pi /sup 0/s produced at the CERN intersecting storage rings, utilizing detectors with large azimuthal acceptance. It is found that the previously observed enhancement of two pi /sup 0/s produced at azimuthal difference near 180 degrees can be made to vanish when certain kinematic effects are removed. However, it is observed that aligned configurations above 8 GeV of transverse energy are unexplained by such kinematic effects. (9 refs).

Back azimuth and slowness anomalies observed at seismic arrays can be used to constrain local and distant structural and propagation effects in the Earth. Observations of large systematic deviations in both azimuth and slowness measured for several P phases (i.e., Pg, Pn, P, PKP) recorded at several IMS arrays show a characteristic sinusoidal pattern when plotted as a function of theoretical back azimuth. These deviations are often interpreted as the affect of the wavefield being systematically bent by refraction from a dipping velocity structure beneath the array, most likely a dipping Moho. We develop a model-based technique that simultaneously fits back azimuth and slowness observations with a ray-based prediction that incorporates a dipping layer defined by its strike and dip. Because the azimuth and slowness deviations both vary as a function of true azimuth, fitting both residuals jointly will give a more consistent calibration for the array. The technique is used to fit over 9900 observations at CMAR from a global distribution of well-located seismic events. Under the assumption that the dipping layer is the Moho with mantle velocity 8.04 km/sec and crustal velocity 6.2 km/sec, we estimate that Moho strike and dip under the CMAR array are 192.6° and 18.3°, respectively. When the trend of the Moho is removed from the back azimuth and slowness residuals, both the sinuous trend and variations with predicted slowness are mitigated. While a dipping interface model does not account for all of the discrepancy between observed and predicted back azimuth and slowness anomalies, and additional calibration whether empirical or model based should be pursued, this technique is a good first step in the calibration procedure for arrays exhibiting sinusoidal residual trends.

Measurements of dijet azimuthal decorrelations in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using the CMS detector at the CERN LHC are presented. The analysis is based on an inclusive dijet event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.9 inverse picobarns. The results are compared to predictions from perturbative QCD calculations and various Monte Carlo event generators. The dijet azimuthal distributions are found to be sensitive to initial-state gluon radiation.

The azimuthal distribution of jets produced in the Breit frame in high-Q**2 deep inelastic e+p scattering has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 38.6 pb-1. The measured azimuthal distribution shows a structure that is well described by next-to-leading-order QCD predictions over the Q**2 range considered, Q**2>125 GeV**2.

A miniature sensor for detecting the orientation of incident ultraviolet light was microfabricated using gallium nitride (GaN)-on-sapphire substrates and semi-transparent interdigitated gold electrodes for sun sensing applications. The individual metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector elements were shown to have a stable and repeatable response with a high sensitivity (photocurrent-to-dark current ratio (PDCR) = 2.4 at -1 V bias) and a high responsivity (3200 A/W at -1 V bias) under ultraviolet (365 nm) illumination. The 3 × 3 GaN-on-sapphire ultraviolet photodetector array was integrated with a gold aperture to realize a miniature sun sensor (1.35 mm × 1.35 mm) capable of determining incident light angles with a ±45° field of view. Using a simple comparative figure of merit algorithm, measurement of incident light angles of 0° and 45° was quantitatively and qualitatively (visually) demonstrated by the sun sensor, supporting the use of GaN-based sun sensors for orientation, navigation, and tracking of the sun within the harsh environment of space.

The elastic orthorhombic assumption is one of the most practical Earth models that takes into account the horizontal anisotropic layering and vertical fracture network. In this model, the rotation angle of the vertical planes of symmetry is a crucial parameter needed to increase the convergence of an anisotropic full waveform inversion (FWI) as well as to provide the fracture geometry along azimuthal direction. As an initial step, we investigate the possibility of recovering the azimuth angle via FWI, which may offer high-resolution information. We first utilize our new parameterization with deviation parameters, which provides the opportunity for multi-stage FWI. Based on the radiation patterns and gradient directions of each parameter, we show that the azimuth angle mainly affects the parameters that have azimuth-dependent radiation patterns, so that we can hierarchically build up the subsurface model from isotropic to VTI to azimuthally rotated orthorhombic models with less trade-offs. From the numerical example for a synthetic 3D model, we expect that both a deviation parameter and the azimuth angle can be recovered in the last stage of FWI with minimum trade-offs.

In this paper, we obtain the eigenstates and the eigenvalues of the Hamiltonians of the trigonometric SU(N) Gaudin model based on the quasi-classical limit of the trigonometric SU(N) chain with the periodic boundary condition.By using the quantum inverse scattering method, we also obtain the eigenvalues of the generating function of the trigonometric SU(N) Gaudin model.

The summer sun shone round me， The folded valley lay In a stream of sun and odour, That sultry summer day． The tall trees stood in the sunlight As still as still could be， But the deep grass sighed and rustled And bowed and beckoned me． The deep grass moved and whispered And bowed and brushed my face． It whis pered in the sunshine： The winter comes apdce．”The summer sun shone round me

Studies indicate that reducing exposure to ultraviolet light during childhood and adolescence decreases the risk of skin cancer. From a young age, children need to be educated about the sun's harmful effects on the skin and how best to protect themselves. To help in the design of school-based interventions to raise sun awareness, a school survey was carried out to identify students' stereotypes and misconceptions. A total of 965 students attending Maltese secondary schools in forms 1, 2 and 3 were surveyed in May 2002, using a structured questionnaire designed to examine students' sun-related attitudes and knowledge. A high level of sun awareness among students was demonstrated, with high scores on knowledge of the effects of the sun on the skin, knowledge of skin cancer and knowledge of sun protection. Girls were clearly more knowledgeable than boys. However, of all the students surveyed, 55% thought that a suntan made them look better and 70% thought that their friends would desire a tan. These views were commoner among the older students. Skin type and hair or eye colour had no bearing on attitudes towards tanning or sun-related knowledge. The commonest misconceptions were that 'the sun is bad for your skin only when you get sunburnt' and that 'you cannot get too much sun on a cloudy day'. Deliberate suntanning was more frequently reported by girls than by boys and by students in the higher forms. Attitude change lags behind knowledge. Future school sun awareness interventions need to take into account gender and age differences in students' attitudes and perspectives. They should aim at motivating attitude change and preventive behaviour through consistent and repeated sun-education messages that are supported by a sun-conscious school environment.

China Illuminating Engineering Journal,which wasfirst publishedinthe year1987,is a nationwide academic magazine sponsored by ChinaIlluminating Engineering Society(CIES).The goal ofChina IlluminatingEngineering Journalis to demonstrate the most advanced R&Dactivities ofilluminating science,the domestic and international state-of-the-art in thefield of illuminating engineering and the academic activities of Committee ofIlluminating Engineering(CIE)as well as other international illuminatingorganizations;relea...

Context. Over the past 20 yr, the quietest areas of the solar surface have revealed a weak but extremely dynamic magnetism occurring at small scales (data with high spatio-temporal resolution. Aims: We present high-precision spectro-polarimetric data with high spatial resolution (0.4'') of the very quiet Sun at 1.56 μm obtained with the GREGOR telescope to shed some light on this complex magnetism. Methods: We used inversion techniques in two main approaches. First, we assumed that the observed profiles can be reproduced with a constant magnetic field atmosphere embedded in a field-free medium. Second, we assumed that the resolution element has a substructure with either two constant magnetic atmospheres or a single magnetic atmosphere with gradients of the physical quantities along the optical depth, both coexisting with a global stray-light component. Results: Half of our observed quiet-Sun region is better explained by magnetic substructure within the resolution element. However, we cannot distinguish whether this substructure comes from gradients of the physical parameters along the line of sight or from horizontal gradients (across the surface). In these pixels, a model with two magnetic components is preferred, and we find two distinct magnetic field populations. The population with the larger filling factor has very weak ( 150 G) horizontal fields similar to those obtained in previous works. We demonstrate that the field vector of this population is not constrained by the observations, given the spatial resolution and polarimetric accuracy of our data. The topology of the other component with the smaller filling factor is constrained by the observations for field strengths above 250 G: we infer hG fields with inclinations and azimuth values compatible with an isotropic distribution. The filling factors are typically below 30%. We also find that the flux of the two polarities is not balanced. From the other half of the observed quiet-Sun area 50% are two

The present study examined for the first time whether a Morris water-maze can be used to explore compass and other orientation mechanisms in the ruin lizard Podarcis sicula. In the open field, during sunny days, lizards were individually trained to swim from the center of the water maze onto a hidden platform (the goal), positioned at the periphery of the maze in a single compass direction. The goal was invisible because it was placed just beneath the water surface and the water was rendered opaque. The results showed that lizards learn to swim directly towards the hidden goal under the sun in the absence of visual feature cues. We further examined whether the observed orientation response would be due to lizards learning the spatial position of the goal relative to the sun's azimuth, i.e. to the use of a time-compensated sun compass. Lizards reaching learning criteria were subjected to 6 h clock-shift (fast or slow), and tested for goal orientation in the Morris water-maze. Results demonstrated that the learned orientation response is mediated by a time-compensated sun compass. Further investigations provided direct evidence that in ruin lizards an intact parietal eye is required to perform goal orientation under the sun inside a Morris water-maze, and that other brain photoreceptors, like the pineal or deep brain photoreceptors, are not involved in orientation.

"I really didn’t expect that at my advanced age, I would be awarded the highest honor in international nursing circles," said Mme. Sun Jingxia, 81, who had just returned from Beijing where she received the Nightingale Medal. Wearing a light yellow suit, with a collar bordered in red, Sun is inhigh spirits, reminding people of the beauty of the setting sun. It is clear that Sun Jingxia has deep feelings as she looks at the medal which shows a relief of Florence Nightingale’s head. She spoke in her usual soft voice but with some excitement, "President Jiang

The ancient religious system of Gnosticism argued for the transcendence of the physical world and the divinity of self-knowledge. More recently, a similar argument was made by Carl Jung through his concept of individuation. This paper examines some of the similarities between Gnostic inner illumination and Jung's concept of individuation.

This work aims to guide in the correct choice and usage of the adequate public illumination equipment. It also aims to help the public authorities in terms of the best economical and technical choice, as well as the adequate maintenance of the equipment in order to obtain the most efficiency and safety with minimum costs 22 figs., 11 tabs.

Agriculture in both terrestrial and space-controlled environments relies heavily on artificial illumination for efficient photosynthesis. Plant-growth illumination systems require high photon flux in the spectral range corresponding with plant photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) (400 700 nm), high spatial uniformity to promote uniform growth, and high energy efficiency to minimize electricity usage. The proposed plant-growth system takes advantage of the highly diffuse reflective surfaces on the interior of a sphere, hemisphere, or other nearly enclosed structure that is coated with highly reflective materials. This type of surface and structure uniformly mixes discrete light sources to produce highly uniform illumination. Multiple reflections from within the domelike structures are exploited to obtain diffuse illumination, which promotes the efficient reuse of photons that have not yet been absorbed by plants. The highly reflective surfaces encourage only the plant tissue (placed inside the sphere or enclosure) to absorb the light. Discrete light sources, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), are typically used because of their high efficiency, wavelength selection, and electronically dimmable properties. The light sources are arranged to minimize shadowing and to improve uniformity. Different wavelengths of LEDs (typically blue, green, and red) are used for photosynthesis. Wavelengths outside the PAR range can be added for plant diagnostics or for growth regulation

Full Text Available Abstract Background Low levels of light exposure at critical times are thought to cause seasonal affective disorder. Investigators, in studies demonstrating the usefulness of bright light therapy, also have implicated light's role in non-seasonal depression. The precise cause of postpartum depression has not been delineated, but it seemed possible that new mothers would spend reduced time in daylight. The goal of this study was to examine the levels of illumination experienced by postpartum mothers and to discover any relationship between light exposure and mood levels experienced during the postpartum period. Methods Fifteen postpartum women, who did not have any baseline indication of depression, wore a wrist device (Actillume for 72 hours to measure their exposure to light. At the end of the recording period, they completed a self-reported measure of mood. The mean light exposure of these postpartum women (expressed as the 24-hour average logarithm of illumination in lux was compared with that of a representative sample of women of comparable age, residence, and seasonal months of recording. Mood levels were then rank-ordered and tested for correlation with light exposure levels. Results There was no significant difference between the amount of light [log10lux] experienced by postpartum (1.01 SD 0.236 and control women (1.06 SD 0.285. Mood was not correlated with illumination in the postpartum sample. Conclusions Postpartum women in San Diego did not receive reduced light, nor was low mood related to low illumination.

The possibility to observe microsecond dynamics at the sub-micron scale, opened by recent technological advances in fast camera sensors, will affect many biophysical studies based on particle tracking in optical microscopy. A main limiting factor for further development of fast video microscopy remains the illumination of the sample, which must deliver sufficient light to the camera to allow microsecond exposure times. Here we systematically compare the main illumination systems employed in holographic tracking microscopy, and we show that a superluminescent diode and a modulated laser diode perform the best in terms of image quality and acquisition speed, respectively. In particular, we show that the simple and inexpensive laser illumination enables less than 1 μs camera exposure time at high magnification on a large field of view without coherence image artifacts, together with a good hologram quality that allows nm-tracking of microscopic beads to be performed. This comparison of sources can guide in choosing the most efficient illumination system with respect to the specific application.

Full Text Available The possibility to observe microsecond dynamics at the sub-micron scale, opened by recent technological advances in fast camera sensors, will affect many biophysical studies based on particle tracking in optical microscopy. A main limiting factor for further development of fast video microscopy remains the illumination of the sample, which must deliver sufficient light to the camera to allow microsecond exposure times. Here we systematically compare the main illumination systems employed in holographic tracking microscopy, and we show that a superluminescent diode and a modulated laser diode perform the best in terms of image quality and acquisition speed, respectively. In particular, we show that the simple and inexpensive laser illumination enables less than 1 μs camera exposure time at high magnification on a large field of view without coherence image artifacts, together with a good hologram quality that allows nm-tracking of microscopic beads to be performed. This comparison of sources can guide in choosing the most efficient illumination system with respect to the specific application.

We compare two recently developed multiple-frame deconvolution approaches for the reconstruction of structured illumination microscopy (SIM) data: the pattern-illuminated Fourier ptychography algorithm (piFP) and the joint Richardson-Lucy deconvolution (jRL). The quality of the images reconstructed by these methods is compared in terms of the achieved resolution improvement, noise enhancement, and inherent artifacts. Furthermore, we study the issue of object-dependent resolution improvement by considering the modulation transfer functions derived from different types of objects. The performance of the considered methods is tested in experiments and benchmarked with a commercial SIM microscope. We find that the piFP method resolves periodic and isolated structures equally well, whereas the jRL method provides significantly higher resolution for isolated objects compared to periodic ones. Images reconstructed by the piFP and jRL algorithms are comparable to the images reconstructed using the generalized Wiener filter applied in most commercial SIM microscopes. An advantage of the discussed algorithms is that they allow the reconstruction of SIM images acquired under different types of illumination, such as multi-spot or random illumination.

In illumination systems the look and feel are often more important than objective criterion, such as uniformity and efficiency. The reason for this is two fold: the lit appearance often sells an item and substantial variation in the illumination distribution (up to 50%) over a broad region is not noticeable to an observer. Therefore, subjective criterion, such as the lit appearance, typically plays a crucial role in the development of an illumination system. Additionally, by using computer models to ascertain the lit appearance before manufacture of the system, it allows the designer to modify the system while not demanding investment to produce prototypes. I discuss methods of determining the lit appearance for illumination systems. This modeling includes the inclusion of material and surface properties, such as surface finish, spectral transmission, and internal scattering; the response of the human eye; and the amount of rays that must be traced. By archiving the ray data, animations as a function of position and angle can be developed. Examples are developed to highlight the utility of this technique. These examples include taillights for the automotive industry and a backlit LCD screen for a laptop. Animations of these models demonstrate their luminance.

This paper proposes a novel dynamic sun-tracking algorithm which allows accurate tracking of the sun for both non-concentrated and concentrated photovoltaic systems located on mobile platforms to maximize solar energy extraction. The proposed algorithm takes not only the date, time, and geographical information, but also the dynamic changes of coordinates of the mobile platforms into account to calculate the sun position angle relative to ideal azimuth-elevation axes in real time using general sun-tracking formulas derived by Chong and Wong. The algorithm acquires data from open-loop sensors, i.e. global position system (GPS) and digital compass, which are readily available in many off-the-shelf portable gadgets, such as smart phone, to instantly capture the dynamic changes of coordinates of mobile platforms. Our experiments found that a highly accurate GPS is not necessary as the coordinate changes of practical mobile platforms are not fast enough to produce significant differences in the calculation of the incident angle. On the contrary, it is critical to accurately identify the quadrant and angle where the mobile platforms are moving toward in real time, which can be resolved by using digital compass. In our implementation, a noise filtering mechanism is found necessary to remove unexpected spikes in the readings of the digital compass to ensure stability in motor actuations and effectiveness in continuous tracking. Filtering mechanisms being studied include simple moving average and linear regression; the results showed that a compound function of simple moving average and linear regression produces a better outcome. Meanwhile, we found that a sampling interval is useful to avoid excessive motor actuations and power consumption while not sacrificing the accuracy of sun-tracking.

Daylight Illumination-Color-Contrast Tables for Full-form Objects is the result of a major computational project concerning the illumination, color, and contrast conditions in naturally illuminated objects. The project from which this two-chapter book is derived is originally conceived in support of the various remote sensing and image processing activities of the Deutsche Forschungs- und Versuchsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, West Germany DFVLR, in particular, those depending on the quantitative photometric and colorimetric evaluation of photographs and other environmental

The illumination performance and energy savings of a solar fiber optic lighting system have been verified in a study hall--corridor interior. The system provides intensive white light with a high luminous flux of 4500 lm under 130000 lx direct sun radiation at a 10 m fiber distance from the sun-tracking light collector. The color temperature that describes the light color perceived is 5800 ± 300 K, i.e. close to the direct sunlight outside, and the color rendering index (86), that describes how well colors are rendered under the light source, is higher for the solar lights than for the supplementary fluorescent lights (77). Thus this high quality solar lighting improves the visibility of all kinds of objects compared to the fluorescent lights. Annual lighting energy savings of 19% in Uppsala, Sweden and 46% in southern Europe were estimated for a study hall interior, as well as 27% and 55% respectively in an interior illuminated 16 h per day all days of a year.

The Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS)-method allows to investigate the distribution of different atmospheric trace gases (e.g. NO2, SO2, HCHO...) simultaneously. This is done by analysing the absorptions of these species in spectra of scattered sunlight. Multi-AXis (MAX)-DOAS measurements observe scattered sun light under different elevation angles. From such measurements tropospheric vertical column densities (VCDs) and vertical profiles of the measured trace gases and aerosols can be determined. We performed measurements using a 4 azimuth MAX-DOAS system on the roof of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz/Germany since 2013. This instrument observes scattered sunlight in 4 separate orthogonal azimuth directions. We derive vertical profiles of trace gases in these 4 different azimuth directions. From these results we can investigate the 3D distribution of the trace gases. Mainz is located at the edge of the Rhine-Main area which is one of the densest populated areas in Germany. Therefore it experiences episodes of high and low pollution depending on the meteorological conditions. In this study we focus on formaldehyde (HCHO). It is either emitted directly by industries and other anthropogenic and biogenic activities. Usually higher amounts are produced by photochemical reactions from precursor substances (secondary production), where it plays an important role in photochemical smog chemistry and O3 chemistry. As it is an intermediate product of basic oxidation cycles of other hydrocarbons (also referred to as volatile organic compounds (VOCs)) especially in summer its concentrations are determined by the abundances of VOCs. Therefore HCHO observations can be used as an indicator for VOCs. Up to now we have nearly 4 years (starting from May 2013) of almost continuous data which provides already a quite large dataset. In this work we present a first overview of our HCHO results including time series of HCHO columns, a first comparison of

While ptychography is an algorithm based on coherent illumination, the satisfactory reconstructions can still be gen-erated in most of experiments though the radiation sources used are not ideally coherent. The underlying physics of this phenomenon is that the diffraction patterns of partially coherent illumination can be treated as those of purely coherent illumination by altering the intensities of the diffracted beams relative to their real values. On the other hand, due to the inconsistency in the altering interference among all the diffraction beams, the noise/distortion is always involved in the reconstructed images. Furthermore, for a weak object, the noise/distortion in the reconstruction can be mostly reduced by using highly curved beam for illumination in the data recording and forcing the dark field diffraction to be zero in the reconstruction.

Here I determined the Sun's position as an expert witness for crown counsel. From my calculations I found the Sun's location in the sky was such that it could not impede the driver's vision, as a result it could not have been the reason for the accused to be involved in a motor vehicle accident.

The percentages of mitochondrial genomes carrying the mtDNA(3895) and the mtDNA(4977) (common) deletion were quantified in sun exposed and non sun exposed skin biopsies, for five cohorts of patients varying either in sun exposure profile, age or skin cancer status. Non-melanoma skin cancer diagnoses are rising in Ireland and worldwide [12] but most risk prediction is based on subjective visual estimations of sun exposure history. A quantitative objective test for pre-neoplastic markers may result in better adherence to sun protective behaviours. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is known to be subject to the loss of a significant proportion of specific sections of genetic code due to exposure to ultraviolet light in sunlight. Although one such deletion has been deemed more sensitive, another, called the mtDNA(4977) or common deletion, has proved to be a more useful indicator of possible risk in this study. Quantitative molecular analysis was carried out to determine the percentage of genomes carrying the deletion using non sun exposed and sun exposed skin biopsies in cohorts of patients with high or low sun exposure profiles and two high exposure groups undergoing treatment for NMSC. Results indicate that mtDNA deletions correlate to sun exposure; in groups with high sun exposure habits a significant increase in deletion number in exposed over non sun exposed skin occurred. An increase in deletion percentage was also seen in older cohorts compared to the younger group. The mtDNA(3895) deletion was detected in small amounts in exposed skin of many patients, the mtDNA(4977) common deletion, although present to some extent in non sun exposed skin, is suggested to be the more reliable and easily detected marker. In all cohorts except the younger group with relatively lower sun exposure, the mtDNA(4977) deletion was more frequent in sun exposed skin samples compared to non-sun exposed skin.

The transparent Sun is modeled as a spherically symmetric and centrally condensed gravitational lens using recent Standard Solar Model (SSM) data. The Sun's minimum focal length is computed to a refined accuracy of 23.5 +/- 0.1 AU, just beyond the orbit of Uranus. The Sun creates a single image of a distant point source visible to observers inside this minimum focal length and to observers sufficiently removed from the line connecting the source through the Sun's center. Regions of space are mapped where three images of a distant point source are created, along with their associated magnifications. Solar caustics, critical curves, and Einstein rings are computed and discussed. Extremely high gravitational lens magnifications exist for observers situated so that an angularly small, unlensed source appears near a three-image caustic. Types of radiations that might undergo significant solar lens magnifications as they can traverse the core of the Sun, including neutrinos and gravitational radiation, are discusse...

Seeded fault experiments were conducted on the planetary stage of an OH-58C helicopter transmission. Two vibration based methods are discussed that isolate the dynamics of the sun gear from that of the planet gears, bearings, input spiral bevel stage, and other components in and around the gearbox. Three damaged sun gears: two spalled and one cracked, serve as the focus of this current work. A non-sequential vibration separation algorithm was developed and the resulting signals analyzed. The second method uses only the time synchronously averaged data but takes advantage of the signal/source mapping required for vibration separation. Both algorithms were successful in identifying the spall damage. Sun gear damage was confirmed by the presence of sun mesh groups. The sun tooth crack condition was inconclusive.

This paper presents the development of sun safe controllers which are designed to keep the spacecraft power positive and thermally balanced in the event an anomaly is detected. Employed by NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), the controllers utilize the measured sun vector and the spacecraft body rates for feedback control. To improve the accuracy of sun vector estimation, the least square minimization approach is applied to process the sensor data, which is proven to be effective and accurate. To validate the controllers, the LADEE spacecraft model engaging the sun safe mode was first simulated and then compared with the actual LADEE orbital fight data. The results demonstrated the applicability of the proposed sun safe controllers.

Full Text Available Illumination normalization of face image for face recognition and facial expression recognition is one of the most frequent and difficult problems in image processing. In order to obtain a face image with normal illumination, our method firstly divides the input face image into sixteen local regions and calculates the edge level percentage in each of them. Secondly, three local regions, which meet the requirements of lower complexity and larger average gray value, are selected to calculate the final illuminant direction according to the error function between the measured intensity and the calculated intensity, and the constraint function for an infinite light source model. After knowing the final illuminant direction of the input face image, the Retinex algorithm is improved from two aspects: (1 we optimize the surround function; (2 we intercept the values in both ends of histogram of face image, determine the range of gray levels, and stretch the range of gray levels into the dynamic range of display device. Finally, we achieve illumination normalization and get the final face image. Unlike previous illumination normalization approaches, the method proposed in this paper does not require any training step or any knowledge of 3D face and reflective surface model. The experimental results using extended Yale face database B and CMU-PIE show that our method achieves better normalization effect comparing with the existing techniques.

Full Text Available Optical microscopy allows us to observe the biological structures and processes within living cells. However, the spatial resolution of the optical microscopy is limited to about half of the wavelength by the light diffraction. Structured illumination microscopy (SIM, a type of new emerging super-resolution microscopy, doubles the spatial resolution by illuminating the specimen with a patterned light, and the sample and light source requirements of SIM are not as strict as the other super-resolution microscopy. In addition, SIM is easier to combine with the other imaging techniques to improve their imaging resolution, leading to the developments of diverse types of SIM. SIM has great potential to meet the various requirements of living cells imaging. Here, we review the recent developments of SIM and its combination with other imaging techniques.

In future space missions, free electron lasers (FEL) may be used to illuminate photovoltaic receivers to provide remote power. Both the radio-frequency (RF) and induction FEL produce pulsed rather than continuous output. In this work we investigate cell response to pulsed laser light which simulates the RF FEL format. The results indicate that if the pulse repetition is high, cell efficiencies are only slightly reduced compared to constant illumination at the same wavelength. The frequency response of the cells is weak, with both voltage and current outputs essentially dc in nature. Comparison with previous experiments indicates that the RF FEL pulse format yields more efficient photovoltaic conversion than does an induction FEL format.

The surface of an insulator under vacuum and under electrical charge will flashover when illuminated by a critical dose of ultra-violet (UV) radiation - depending on the insulator size and material, insulator cone angle, the applied voltage and insulator shot-history. A testbed comprised of an excimer laser (KrF, 248 nm, {approx}16 MW, 30 ns FWHM,), a vacuum chamber, and a negative polarity dc high voltage power supply ({le} -60 kV) were assembled to test 1.0 cm thick angled insulators for surface-flashover. Several candidate insulator materials, e.g. High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Rexolite{reg_sign} 1400, Macor{trademark} and Mycalex, of varying cone angles were tested against UV illumination. Commercial energy meters were used to measure the UV fluence of the pulsed laser beam. In-house designed and fabricated capacitive probes (D-dots, >12 GHz bandwidth) were embedded in the anode electrode underneath the insulator to determine the time of UV arrival and time of flashover. Of the tested insulators, the +45 degree Rexolite insulator showed more resistance to UV for surface flashover; at UV fluence level of less than 13 mJ/cm{sup 2}, it was not possible to induce a flashover for up to -60 kV of DC potential across the insulator's surface. The probes also permitted the electrical charge on the insulator before and after flashover to be inferred. Photon to electron conversion efficiency for the surface of Rexolite insulator was determined from charge-balance equation. In order to understand the physical mechanism leading to flashover, we further experimented with the +45 degree Rexolite insulator by masking portions of the UV beam to illuminate only a section of the insulator surface; (1) the half nearest the cathode and subsequently, (2) the half nearest the anode. The critical UV fluence and time to flashover were measured and the results in each case were then compared with the base case of full-beam illumination. It was discovered that the time for the

Full Text Available Electric power supply in many cities in developing countries is erratic and can only be described as non-existent in the rural areas. Kerosene lantern, the main source of illuminating the night is associated with obnoxious fumes production and more especially the kerosene fuel is scarce to find. Rural dwellers who cannot afford the globed kerosene lanterns either use the locally fabricated globeless kerosene lanterns, ―atunja‖ or log fire. Log fire is associated with deforestation and desert encroachment. A solar lantern has been designed and built for illuminating the nights in rural communities. Battery and LED are part of the components used and it is recommended that appropriate safety measures are put in place not only in use but also in their disposal.

We report a bimodality in the azimuthal angle distribution of gas around galaxies as traced by MgII absorption: Halo gas prefers to exist near the projected galaxy major and minor axes. The bimodality is demonstrated by computing the mean azimuthal angle probability distribution function using 88 spectroscopically confirmed MgII absorption-selected galaxies [W_r(2796)> 0.1A] and 35 spectroscopically confirmed non-absorbing galaxies [W_r(2796)<0.1A] imaged with HST and SDSS. The azimuthal angle distribution for non-absorbers is flat, indicating no azimuthal preference for gas characterized by W_r(2796)<0.1A. We find that blue star-forming galaxies clearly drive the bimodality. We compute an azimuthal angle dependent MgII absorption covering fraction and find that it is enhanced by as much as 20-30% along the major and minor axes. The equivalent width distribution for gas along the major axis is likely skewed toward weaker MgII absorption than for gas along the projected minor axis. These combined results...

If the thickness of coal seams and the lithology of both roofs and floors of coal seams have not changed at all or only a little, then it is thought that the elastic anisotropy of coal seams depends mainly on fractures and obeys the horizontally symmetric model of an azimuth anisotropy. For a fixed offset, the amplitude A of the reflection P-wave and the cosine of 2 (ψ) has an approximately linear relation, ( (ψ) is the source-detector azimuth with respect to the fracture strike. Based on this relationship, many things can be done, such as the extraction of macro bins, the correction of residual normal moveout, the formation of azimuth gather, the transformation and normalization of azimuth gathers and the extraction of reflection wave amplitudes of coal seams. The least squares method was used to inverse theoretically the direction and density of fractures of coal seams. The result is in good agreement with the regional geological structure, indicating that the azimuth anisotropic analysis of the P-wave is feasible in evaluating the density and direction of fractures in coal seams.

Full Text Available With the current increased widespread interest in the development and applications of micro/nanosatellites, it was found that we needed to design a small high accuracy satellite attitude determination system, because the star trackers widely used in large satellites are large and heavy, and therefore not suitable for installation on micro/nanosatellites. A Sun sensor + magnetometer is proven to be a better alternative, but the conventional sun sensor has low accuracy, and cannot meet the requirements of the attitude determination systems of micro/nanosatellites, so the development of a small high accuracy sun sensor with high reliability is very significant. This paper presents a multi-aperture based sun sensor, which is composed of a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS mask with 36 apertures and an active pixels sensor (APS CMOS placed below the mask at a certain distance. A novel fast multi-point MEANSHIFT (FMMS algorithm is proposed to improve the accuracy and reliability, the two key performance features, of an APS sun sensor. When the sunlight illuminates the sensor, a sun spot array image is formed on the APS detector. Then the sun angles can be derived by analyzing the aperture image location on the detector via the FMMS algorithm. With this system, the centroid accuracy of the sun image can reach 0.01 pixels, without increasing the weight and power consumption, even when some missing apertures and bad pixels appear on the detector due to aging of the devices and operation in a harsh space environment, while the pointing accuracy of the single-aperture sun sensor using the conventional correlation algorithm is only 0.05 pixels.

This paper presents an image-based algorithm for simulating the visual adaptation of the human visual system to various illuminations,especially in dark nighttime conditions.The human visual system exhibits different characteristics depending on the illumination intensity,with photopic vision in bright conditions,scotopic vision in dark conditions,and mesopic vision between these two.A computational model is designed to simulate multiple features of mesopic vision and scotopic vision,including the chromaticity change,luminance change,and visual acuity loss.The system uses a source image under bright illumination as input.Then assuming that the viewer has already adapted to the new conditions,the color spectrum of the input image is reconstructed to replace the source with modifications of the chromaticity and the luminance of the relighted scene.A bilateral filter is used to simulate the visual acuity loss.The model parameters have clear physical meanings and can be obtained from experimental data to achieve realistic results.The algorithm can be used not only for visual perception simulation,but also as a day-for-night tool to produce realistic nighttime images from daytime images.

A preliminary evaluation of low power, ground-based laser powered electric propulsion systems is presented. A review of available and near-term laser, photovoltaic, and adaptive optic systems indicates that approximately 5-kW of ground-based laser power can be delivered at an equivalent one-sun intensity to an orbit of approximately 2000 km. Laser illumination at the proper wavelength can double photovoltaic array conversion efficiencies compared to efficiencies obtained with solar illumination at the same intensity, allowing a reduction in array mass. The reduced array mass allows extra propellant to be carried with no penalty in total spacecraft mass. The extra propellant mass can extend the satellite life in orbit, allowing additional revenue to be generated. A trade study using realistic cost estimates and conservative ground station viewing capability was performed to estimate the number of communication satellites which must be illuminated to make a proliferated system of laser ground stations economically attractive. The required number of satellites is typically below that of proposed communication satellite constellations, indicating that low power ground-based laser beaming may be commercially viable. However, near-term advances in low specific mass solar arrays and high energy density batteries for LEO applications would render the ground-based laser system impracticable.

... illuminate the operating controls at the principal operating position. (b) Instead of dial lights, a light from an electric lamp may be provided to illuminate the operating controls of the radiotelephone at...

The stability under illumination of transmission-mode GaAs photocathode sealed in the third generation intensifier is investigated by use of spectral response testing instruments. The variations of spectral response with the illumination times under weak and intense illumination are compared. The variations of photoemission performance parameters are also characterized. The results show that during initial several weak illuminations photocathode behaves no evident decay and a maximum sensitivity is achieved, while under intense illumination the sensitivity of photocathode begin to decrease largely at the first illumination. The calculated performance parameters show that the variation of surface escape probability with illumination times is a direct cause of instability of photocathode. It is also found that under intense illumination peak wavelength is moved towards short-wave and peak response is decreased, which shows that the ability of long-wave response of photocathode is decreased.

Without the Sun, all life on Earth would perish. But what exactly do we know about this star that lights, heats, and powers Earth? Actually, we know quite a lot, thanks mainly to a host of eager solar observers. Looking directly at the Sun is EXTREMELY hazardous. But many astronomers, both professional and amateur, have found ways to view the Sun safely to learn about it. You, too, can view the Sun in all of its glorious detail. Some of the newest, most exciting telescopes on the market are affordable to amateur astronomers or even just curious sky watchers, and with this guide to what the Sun has to offer, including sunspots, prominences, and flares, plus reviews of the latest instruments for seeing and capturing images of the Sun, you can contribute to humankind’s knowledge of this immense ball of glowing gases that gives us all life. For a complete guide to Sun viewing, see also Total Solar Eclipses and How to Observe Them (2007) by Martin Mobberley in this same series.

The linearized dynamic equations used for on-board orbit determination of Sun-synchronous satellite are derived. Sun-synchronous orbits are orbits with the secular rate of the right ascension of the ascending node equal to the right ascension rate of the mean sun. Therefore the orbit is no more a closed circle but a tight helix about the Earth. In the paper, instead of treating the orbit as a closed circle, the actual helix orbit is taken as nominal trajectory. The details of the linearized equations of motion for the satellite in the Sun-synchronous orbit are derived. The linearized equations are obtained by perturbing the Keplerian motion with the J2 correction and the effect of sun's attraction being neglected. Combined with the GPS navigation equations, the Kalman filter formulation is given. The particular application considered is the circular Sun-synchronous orbit with the altitude of 800 km and inclination of 98.6°. The numerical example simulated by MATLAB® shows that only the pseudo-range data used in the algorithm still gives acceptable results. Based on the simulation results, we can use the on-board GPS receivers' signal only as an alternative to determine the orbit of Sun-Synchronous satellite and therefore circumvents the need for extensive ground support.

This paper presents SunPy (version 0.5), a community-developed Python package for solar physics. Python, a free, cross-platform, general-purpose, high-level programming language, has seen widespread adoption among the scientific community, resulting in the availability of a large number of software packages, from numerical computation (NumPy, SciPy) and machine learning (scikit-learn) to visualization and plotting (matplotlib). SunPy is a data-analysis environment specializing in providing the software necessary to analyse solar and heliospheric data in Python. SunPy is open-source software (BSD licence) and has an open and transparent development workflow that anyone can contribute to. SunPy provides access to solar data through integration with the Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO), the Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase (HEK), and the HELiophysics Integrated Observatory (HELIO) webservices. It currently supports image data from major solar missions (e.g., SDO, SOHO, STEREO, and IRIS), time-series data from missions such as GOES, SDO/EVE, and PROBA2/LYRA, and radio spectra from e-Callisto and STEREO/SWAVES. We describe SunPy's functionality, provide examples of solar data analysis in SunPy, and show how Python-based solar data-analysis can leverage the many existing tools already available in Python. We discuss the future goals of the project and encourage interested users to become involved in the planning and development of SunPy.

A procedure to measure the residual tilt angle $\\tau$ between a flat surface and the azimuthal rotation axis of the sample holder is described. When the incidence angle $\\theta$ and readout of the azimuthal angle $\\phi$ are controlled by motors, an active compensation mechanism can be implemented to reduce the effect of the tilt angle during azimuthal motion. After this correction, the effective angle of incidence is kept fixed, and only the small residual oscillation of the scattering plane remains.

Seismic anisotropy provides important constraints on deformation patterns of Earth's material.Rayleigh wave dispersion data with azimuthal anisotropy can be used to invert for depth-dependent shear wavespeed azimuthal anisotropy,therefore reflecting depth-varying deformation patterns in the crust and upper mantle.In this study,we propose a two-step method that uses the Neighborhood Algorithm (NA) for the point-wise inversion of depth-dependent shear wavespeeds and azimuthal anisotropy from Rayleigh wave azimuthally anisotropic dispersion data.The first step employs the NA to estimate depthdependent Vsv (or the elastic parameter L) as well as their uncertainties from the isotropic part Rayleigh wave dispersion data.In the second step,we first adopt a difference scheme to compute approximate Rayleigh-wave phase velocity sensitivity kernels to azimuthally anisotropic parameters with respect to the velocity model obtained in the first step.Then we perform the NA to estimate the azi.muthally anisotropic parameters Gc/L and Gs/L at depths separately from the corresponding cosine and sine terms of the azimuthally anisotropic dispersion data.Finally,we compute the depth-dependent magnitude and fast polarization azimuth of shear wavespeed azimuthal anisotropy.The use of the global search NA and Bayesian analysis allows for more reliable estimates of depth-dependent shear wavespeeds and azimuthal anisotropy as well as their uncertainties.We illustrate the inversion method using the azimuthally anisotropic dispersion data in SE Tibet,where we find apparent changes of fast axes of shear wavespeed azimuthal anisotropy between the crust and uppermost mantle.

We study the charge-dependent azimuthal correlations in relativistic heavy ion collisions, as motivated by the search for the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME) and the investigation of related background contributions. In particular we aim to understand how these correlations induced by various proposed effects evolve from collisions with AuAu system to that with UU system. To do that, we quantify the generation of magnetic field in UU collisions at RHIC energy and its azimuthal correlation with the matter geometry using event-by-event simulations. Taking the experimental data for charge-dependent azimuthal correlations from AuAu collisions and extrapolating to UU with reasonable assumptions, we examine the resulting correlations to be expected in UU collisions and compare them with recent STAR measurements. Based on such analysis we discuss the viability for explaining the data with a combination of the CME-like and flow-induced contributions.

In this fourth paper in a series, we present the results of our efforts to model the remarkable temporal and azimuthal variability of the Io plasma torus during the Cassini encounter with Jupiter. The long-term (months) temporal variation in the average torus composition observed by the Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) can be modeled by supposing a factor of ~4 increase in the amount of material supplied to the extended neutral clouds that are the source of torus plasma, followed by a gradual decay to more "typical" values. On shorter timescales, the observed 10.07-hour torus periodicity and azimuthal variation in plasma composition, including its surprising modulation with System III longitude, is reproduced by our model using the superposition of two azimuthal variations of suprathermal electrons: a primary hot electron variation that slips 12.5 degrees/day relative to the Jovian magnetic field and a secondary variation that remains fixed in System III longitude.

The dynamic balance quality of a rotating object is an important factor to maintain the stability and accuracy for motion. The azimuth of the principal axis of inertia is a major sign of dynamic balance. A usual method is measuring moment of inertia matrix relative to some base coordinates on a rotary inertia machine so as to calculate the azimuth of principal axis of inertia. By using the measured unbalance results on the two trimmed planes on a vertical hard bearing double-plane dynamic balancing machine, the dimension and direction of couple unbalance can be found. An azimuth angle formula for the principal axis of inertia is derived and is solved by using unbalance quantities. The experiments indicate that method based on dynamic balancing measurement is proved rational and effective and has a fine precision.

We present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study on the near- and far-field properties of plasmonic oligomers using radially and azimuthally polarized excitation. These unconventional polarization states are perfectly matched to the high spatial symmetry of the oligomers and thus allow for the excitation of some of the highly symmetric eigenmodes of the structures, which cannot be excited by linearly polarized light. In particular, we study hexamer and heptamer structures and strikingly find very similar optical responses, as well as the absence of a Fano resonance. Furthermore, we investigate the near-field distributions of the oligomers using near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM). We observe significantly enhanced near-fields, which arise from efficient excitation of the highly symmetric eigenmodes by the radially and azimuthally polarized light fields. Our study opens up possibilities for tailored light-matter interaction, combining the design freedom of complex plasmonic structures with the remarkable properties of radially and azimuthally polarized light fields.

To tackle the difficulties of a 3-D full volum eprestack migration based on the double-square-root (DSR) one-way wave equation in practical applications, the common-azimuth migration approach is first discussed using dual-domain wave propagators under the theoretical frame of crossline common-offset migration. Through coor-dinate transforming, a common-azimuth prestack tau migra-tion technology that recursively continues the source and receiver wavefields and picks up the migrated results in the two-way vertical traveltime (tau) direction is developed.The migrations of synthetic data sets of SEG/EAGE salt model prove that our common-azimuth migration approaches are effective in both depth and tau domains. Two real data examples show the advantages of wave-theory based prestack migration methods in accuracy and imaging resolution over the conventional Kirchhoff integral methods.

In this paper, a focusing approach is presented to widen the use of efficient monostatic imaging algorithms for azimuth-invariant bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. The bistatic range history is modeled by a polynomial of azimuth time. Using this model, an analytic form of the signal spectrum in the 2D frequency domain is derived, and a simple single-valued relation between the transmitter and receive ranges is established. In this way, a lot of monostatic image formation algorithms can be extended for the bistatic SAR data, and a bistatic chirp scaling algorithm is developed as an application of the new approach. This algorithm can be used to process the azimuth-invariant bistatic configuration where the transmitter and receiver platforms are moving on parallel tracks with the same velocity. In addition, some simulation results are given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.

In spaceborne synthetic aperture radar,undersampling at the rate of the pulse repetition frequency causes azimuth ambiguity,which induces ghost into the images.This paper introduces compressed sensing for azimuth ambiguity suppression and presents two novel methods from the perspectives of system design and image formation,known as azimuth random sampling and ambiguity separation,respectively.The first method makes the imaging results for the ambiguity zones as disperse as possible while ensuring that the imaging results for the main scene are affected as little as possible.The second method separates the ambiguity signals from the echoes and achieves imaging results without the ambiguity effect.Simulation results show that the two methods can reduce the ambiguity levels by about 16 dB and 99.37％,respectively.

Optical fields with orbital angular momentum (OAM) interact with medium have many remarkable properties with its unique azimuthal phase, showing many potential applications in high capacity information processing, high precision measurement etc. The dephasing mechanics of optical fields with OAM in an interface between light and matter plays a vital role in many areas of physics. In this work, we study the transverse azimuthal dephasing of OAM spin wave in a hot atomic gas via OAM storage. The transverse azimuthal phase difference between the control and probe beams is mapped onto the spin wave, which essentially results in dephasing of atomic spin wave. The dephasing of OAM spin wave can be controlled by the parameters of OAM topological charge and beam waist. Our results are helpful for studying OAM light interaction with matter, maybe hold a promise in OAM-based quantum information processing.

The magnetorotational instability (MRI) is thought to be a powerful source of turbulence and momentum transport in astrophysical accretion discs, but obtaining observational evidence of its operation is challenging. Recently, laboratory experiments of Taylor--Couette flow with externally imposed axial and azimuthal magnetic fields have revealed the kinematic and dynamic properties of the MRI close to the instability onset. While good agreement was found with linear stability analyses, little is known about the transition to turbulence and transport properties of the MRI. We here report on a numerical investigation of the MRI with an imposed azimuthal magnetic field. We show that the laminar Couette flow becomes unstable to a wave rotating in the azimuthal direction and standing in the axial direction via a supercritical Hopf bifurcation. Subsequently, the flow features a catastrophic transition to spatio-temporal defects which is mediated by a subcritical subharmonic Hopf bifurcation. Our results are in agree...

This experimental research investigates a new method of manipulating the magnetic states of ferromagnetic nanorings using a circular magnetic field directed along the ring circumference. This type of azimuthal field can naturally select a vortex magnetization of desired chirality. The understanding of the magnetization switching behavior in an azimuthal field could lead to new designs of practical magnetic data storage devices. Symmetric and asymmetric nanorings made of permalloy are fabricated by a standard technique using electron-beam lithography and e-beam evaporation. Azimuthal fields are generated by passing current through an atomic force microscope tip, which is positioned at the center of the ring. The magnetic field direction and magnitude are controlled by the current. We demonstrate control over switching from an onion state to a vortex state, and also between two vortex states, using magnetic force microscopy to image the resulting magnetic states. This work was supported by NSF grants DMR-0907201 CMMI-0531171.

This paper presents the new photometer CE318-T, able to perform daytime and night-time photometric measurements using the sun and the moon as light source. Therefore, this new device permits a complete cycle of diurnal aerosol and water vapour measurements valuable to enhance atmospheric monitoring to be extracted. In this study we have found significantly higher precision of triplets when comparing the CE318-T master instrument and the Cimel AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) master (CE318-AERONET) triplets as a result of the new CE318-T tracking system. Regarding the instrument calibration, two new methodologies to transfer the calibration from a reference instrument using only daytime measurements (Sun Ratio and Sun-Moon gain factor techniques) are presented and discussed. These methods allow the reduction of the previous complexities inherent to nocturnal calibration. A quantitative estimation of CE318-T AOD uncertainty by means of error propagation theory during daytime revealed AOD uncertainties (uDAOD) for Langley-calibrated instruments similar to the expected values for other reference instruments (0.002-0.009). We have also found uDAOD values similar to the values reported in sun photometry for field instruments ( ˜ 0.015). In the case of the night-time period, the CE318-T-estimated standard combined uncertainty (uNAOD) is dependent not only on the calibration technique but also on illumination conditions and the instrumental noise. These values range from 0.011-0.018 for Lunar Langley-calibrated instruments to 0.012-0.021 for instruments calibrated using the Sun Ratio technique. In the case of moon-calibrated instruments using the Sun-Moon gain factor method and sun-calibrated using the Langley technique, we found uNAOD ranging from 0.016 to 0.017 (up to 0.019 in 440 nm channel), not dependent on any lunar irradiance model.A subsequent performance evaluation including CE318-T and collocated measurements from independent reference instruments has served to

The screen-printing method is an economical metallization technique used by most manufacturers of conventional silicon solar cells. This method limits the cells' use under concentrated light owing to high series resistance losses caused, among other reasons, by low metal density in the fingers. This paper describes increasing the finger metal density by electrolytic deposition. The electrolytic deposition of silver is an economical, controllable and readily commercializable deposition method to reduce the front and back metallization series resistance contributions. With an optimized grid design, compatible with 1 sun silicon cell technology, and later electrolytic silver deposition we have obtained cells that maintain their efficiency up to 15 suns. In addition, an analysis of the performance of these cells under uniform and non-uniform illumination were carried out on n{sup +}p and n{sup +}pn{sup +} structures. (author)

A few percent wobbling-beam illumination nonuniformity is realized in heavy ion inertial confinement fusion (HIF) by a spiraling beam axis motion in the paper. So far the wobbling heavy ion beam (HIB) illumination was proposed to realize a uniform implosion in HIF. However, the initial imprint of the wobbling HIBs was a serious problem and introduces a large unacceptable energy deposition nonuniformity. In the wobbling HIBs illumination, the illumination nonuniformity oscillates in time and s...

Quantitatively reconstructing optical absorption using photoacoustic imaging is nontrivial. Theoretical hurdles, such as nonuniqueness and numerical instability, can be mitigated by using multiple illuminations. However, even with multiple illuminations, using ANSI-safety-limited fluence for practical imaging may result in poor performance owing to limited signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We demonstrate the use of S-sequence coded patterned illumination to boost SNR while preserving the enhanced stability of multiple-illumination iterative techniques.

Radio scattering observations provide a means of measuring a two-dimensional projection of the three-dimensional spatial spectrum of electron density, i.e., in the plane perpendicular to the line of sight. Earlier observations have shown that the microstructure at scales of the order of 10 km becomes highly field-aligned inside of 10 Rsolar [Armstrong et al., 1990]. Earlier work has also shown that density fluctuations at scales larger than 1000 km have a Kolmogorov spectrum, whereas the smaller scale structure has a flatter spectrum and is considerably enhanced above the Kolmogorov ``background'' [Coles et al., 1991]. Here we present new observations made during 1990 and 1992. These confirm the earlier work, which was restricted to one source on a few days, but they suggest that the anisotropy changes abruptly near 6 Rsolar which was not clear in the earlier data. The axial ratio measurements are shown on Figure 1 below. The new observations were made with a more uniform sampling of the spatial plane. They show that contours of constant correlation are elliptical. This is apparently inconsistent with the spatial correlation of the ISEE-3 magnetic field which shows a ``Maltese Cross'' shape [Matthaeus et al., 1990]. However this inconsistency may be only apparent: the magnetic field and density correlations need not have the same shape; the scale of the magnetic field correlations is at least 4 orders of magnitude larger; they are much further from the sun; and they are point measurements whereas ours are path-integrated. We also made two simultaneous measurements, at 10 Rsolar, of the anisotropy on scales of 200 to 4000 km. Significant anisotropy was seen on the smaller scales, but the larger scale structure was essentially isotropic. This suggests that the process responsible for the anisotropic microstructure is independent of the larger scale isotropic turbulence. It is then tempting to speculate that the damping of this anisotropic process inside of 6 Rsolar

The Sun's dusty interstellar environment Interstellar dust from our immediate interstellar neighborhood travels through the solar system at speeds of ca. 26 km/s: the relative speed of the solar system with respect to the local interstellar cloud. On its way, its trajectories are altered by several forces like the solar radiation pressure force and Lorentz force. The latter is due to the charged dust particles that fly through the interplanetary magnetic field. These trajectories differ per particle type and size and lead to varying fluxes and directions of the flow inside of the solar system that depend on location but also on phase in the solar cycle. Hence, these fluxes and directions depend strongly on the configuration of the inner regions and outer regions of the heliosphere. Several missions have measured this dust in the solar system directly. The Ulysses dust detector data encompasses 16 years of intestellar dust fluxes and approximate directions, Stardust captured returned to Earth a few of these particles sucessfully, and finally the Cassini dust detector allowed for compositional information to be obtained from the impacts on the instrument. In this talk, we give an overview of the current status of interstellar dust research through the measurements made inside of the solar system, and we put them in perspective to the knowledge obtained from more classical astronomical means. In special, we focus on the interaction of the dust with the interplanetary magnetic field, and on what we learn about the dust (and the fields) by comparing the available dust data to computer simulations of dust trajectories. Finally, we synthesize the different methods of observation, their results, and give a preview on new research opportunities in the coming year(s).

The interior of the Sun is not directly accessible to observations. Nonetheless, it is possible to infer the physical conditions inside the Sun with the help of structure equations governing its equilibrium and with the powerful observational tools provided by the neutrino fluxes and oscillation frequencies. The helioseismic data show that the internal constitution of the Sun can be adequately represented by a standard solar model. It turns out that a cooler solar core is not a viable solution for the measured deficit of neutrino fluxes, and the resolution of the solar neutrino puzzle should be sought in the realm of particle physics.

The 41-year measurements of the Doppler effect of the photosphere performed at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, discovered two periods of global oscillations of the Sun: 9600.606(12) s and 9597.929(15) s. Their beat period, 398.4(2.9) d, well agrees with a synodic orbital period of Jupiter, PJ = 398.9 d, raising a new problem for solar physics, cosmogony and cosmology. A hypothesis is advanced that the PJ beating of the Sun is induced by gravitation of Jupiter, revolving in a privileged reference system "the Sun - the Earth".

Seeing is critical to human performance. Lighting is critical for seeing. Therefore, lighting is critical to human performance. This is common sense, and here on earth, it is easily taken for granted. However, on orbit, because the sun will rise or set every 45 minutes on average, humans working in space must cope with extremely dynamic lighting conditions. Contrast conditions of harsh shadowing and glare is also severe. The prediction of lighting conditions for critical operations is essential. Crew training can factor lighting into the lesson plans when necessary. Mission planners can determine whether low-light video cameras are required or whether additional luminaires need to be flown. The optimization of the quantity and quality of light is needed because of the effects on crew safety, on electrical power and on equipment maintainability. To address all of these issues, an illumination modeling system has been developed by the Graphics Research and Analyses Facility (GRAF) and Lighting Environment Test Facility (LETF) in the Space Human Factors Laboratory at NASA Johnson Space Center. The system uses physically based ray tracing software (Radiance) developed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, a human factors oriented geometric modeling system (PLAID) and an extensive database of humans and environments. Material reflectivity properties of major surfaces and critical surfaces are measured using a gonio-reflectometer. Luminaires (lights) are measured for beam spread distribution, color and intensity. Video camera performances are measured for color and light sensitivity. 3D geometric models of humans and the environment are combined with the material and light models to form a system capable of predicting lighting conditions and visibility conditions in space.

Based on nonimaging design method,uniform illuminance systems with LED source were developed to create a uniform illuminated circular region with a desired size in a screen at a prescribed place.By using ray-tracing software based on Monte-Carlo method,the simulation results show that in the illuminated region the luminous uniformity is higher than 90%.

We propose a novel method to correct for arbitrary illumination variation in the face images. The main purpose is to improve recognition results of face images taken under uncontrolled illumination conditions. We correct the illumination variation in the face images using a face shape model, which

The focal field properties of radially/azimuthally polarized Zernike polynomials are studied. A method to design the pupil field in order to shape the focal field of radially or azimuthally polarized phase vortex is introduced. With this method, we are able to obtain a pupil field to achieve a longitudinally polarized hollow spot with a depth of focus up to $12\\lambda$ and $0.14\\lambda$ lateral resolution for a optical system with numerical aperture 0.99; A pupil field to generate 8 circularly polarized focal spots along the optical axis is also obtained with this method.

Two-particle (two-fragment) azimuthal correlation functions are studied by using a simple formula which describes uniformly azimuthal distributions of final-state charged particles and nuclear fragments.This formula is obtained in the framework of a multi-source thermal model (or multi-source ideal gas model).The calculated results are compared and found to be in agreement with the experimental data of charged hadrons and nuclear fragments in nucleus-nucleus collisions at intermediate and high energies.

We point out an inconsistency in perturbative QCD predictions previously used for dijet azimuthal decorrelations for azimuthal angles of $\\Delta\\phi_{\\rm dijet} < 2\\pi/3$ between the two jets. We show how the inconsistency arises and how the calculations can be modified to provide more accurate results that exhibit a smaller scale dependence and give a better description of the data than the inconsistent results. We also explain how the quality of the predictions strongly depends on a perceivedly minor detail in the definition of the dijet phase space and give recommendations for future measurements.

Fluctuation component in the turbulence regime is found to be azimuthally localized at a phase of the global coherent modes in a linear magnetized plasma PANTA. Spatial distribution of squared bicoherence is given in the azimuthal cross section as an indicator of nonlinear energy transfer function from the global coherent mode to the turbulence. Squared bicoherence is strong at a phase where the turbulence amplitude is large. As a result of the turbulence localization, time evolution of radial particle flux becomes bursty. Statistical features such as skewness and kurtosis are strongly modified by the localized turbulence component, although contribution to mean particle flux profile is small.

We have performed a spectral analysis on 18 stars solar sibling candidate. We found that only one one of the candidateshas solar metallicity and at the same time might have an age comparable to that of the Sun.

... What Causes Cancer? Sun and Other Types of Radiation Learn about the different types of radiation and ... other diseases. Learn more here. Other Types of Radiation Exposure Not all types of radiation have been ...

Background It has been reported that patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) can lower their risk of a second primary melanoma by limiting recreational sun exposure. Previous studies based on questionnaires and objective surrogate measurements indicate that before their diagnosis......, patients with CMM are exposed to higher ultraviolet radiation (UVR) doses than controls, followed by a reduction after diagnosis. Objectives In a prospective, observational case-control study, we aimed to assess sun exposure after diagnosis of CMM by objective measurements to substantiate advice about sun...... months and 6 years before the start of the study. During a summer season participants filled in sun exposure diaries daily and wore personal electronic UVR dosimeters in a wristwatch that continuously measured time-stamped UVR doses in standard erythema dose. Results The UVR dose of recently diagnosed...

This article describes Nilaja Sun's groundbreaking one-woman show about a TA, her students, and her school, and includes interviews with the author/performer, an excerpt of the work, and a discussion of the organization behind it.

Dual-color live cell fluorescence microscopy of fast intracellular trafficking processes, such as axonal transport, requires rapid switching of illumination channels. Typical broad-spectrum sources necessitate the use of mechanical filter switching, which introduces delays between acquisition of different fluorescence channels, impeding the interpretation and quantification of highly dynamic processes. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), however, allow modulation of excitation light in microseconds. Here we provide a step-by-step protocol to enable any scientist to build a research-grade LED illuminator for live cell microscopy, even without prior experience with electronics or optics. We quantify and compare components, discuss our design considerations, and demonstrate the performance of our LED illuminator by imaging axonal transport of herpes virus particles with high temporal resolution. PMID:26600461

Full Text Available Dual-color live cell fluorescence microscopy of fast intracellular trafficking processes, such as axonal transport, requires rapid switching of illumination channels. Typical broad-spectrum sources necessitate the use of mechanical filter switching, which introduces delays between acquisition of different fluorescence channels, impeding the interpretation and quantification of highly dynamic processes. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs, however, allow modulation of excitation light in microseconds. Here we provide a step-by-step protocol to enable any scientist to build a research-grade LED illuminator for live cell microscopy, even without prior experience with electronics or optics. We quantify and compare components, discuss our design considerations, and demonstrate the performance of our LED illuminator by imaging axonal transport of herpes virus particles with high temporal resolution.

In this project we developed and tested a novel technology, designed to enhance seismic resolution and imaging of ultra-deep complex geologic structures by using state-of-the-art wave-equation depth migration and wave-equation velocity model building technology for deeper data penetration and recovery, steeper dip and ultra-deep structure imaging, accurate velocity estimation for imaging and pore pressure prediction and accurate illumination and amplitude processing for extending the AVO prediction window. Ultra-deep wave-equation imaging provides greater resolution and accuracy under complex geologic structures where energy multipathing occurs, than what can be accomplished today with standard imaging technology. The objective of the research effort was to examine the feasibility of imaging ultra-deep structures onshore and offshore, by using (1) wave-equation migration, (2) angle-gathers velocity model building, and (3) wave-equation illumination and amplitude compensation. The effort consisted of answering critical technical questions that determine the feasibility of the proposed methodology, testing the theory on synthetic data, and finally applying the technology for imaging ultra-deep real data. Some of the questions answered by this research addressed: (1) the handling of true amplitudes in the downward continuation and imaging algorithm and the preservation of the amplitude with offset or amplitude with angle information required for AVO studies, (2) the effect of several imaging conditions on amplitudes, (3) non-elastic attenuation and approaches for recovering the amplitude and frequency, (4) the effect of aperture and illumination on imaging steep dips and on discriminating the velocities in the ultra-deep structures. All these effects were incorporated in the final imaging step of a real data set acquired specifically to address ultra-deep imaging issues, with large offsets (12,500 m) and long recording time (20 s).

Image cross-correlation microscopy (ICM) is a technique that quantifies the motion of fluorescent features in an image by measuring the temporal autocorrelation function decay in a time-lapse image sequence. ICM has traditionally employed laser-scanning microscopes because the technique emerged as an extension of laser-based fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). In this work, we show that image correlation can also be used to measure fluorescence dynamics in uniform illumination or wide-field imaging systems and we call our new approach uniform illumination image correlation microscopy (UI-ICM). Wide-field microscopy is not only a simpler, less expensive imaging modality, but it offers the capability of greater temporal resolution over laser-scanning systems. In traditional laser-scanning ICM, lateral mobility is calculated from the temporal de-correlation of an image, where the characteristic length is the illuminating laser beam width. In wide-field microscopy, the diffusion length is defined by the feature size using the spatial autocorrelation function (SACF). Correlation function decay in time occurs as an object diffuses from its original position. We show that theoretical and simulated comparisons between Gaussian and uniform features indicate the temporal autocorrelation function (TACF) depends strongly on particle size and not particle shape. In this report, we establish the relationships between the SACF feature size, TACF characteristic time and the diffusion coefficient for UI-ICM using analytical, Monte-Carlo and experimental validation with particle tracking algorithms. Additionally, we demonstrate UI-ICM analysis of adhesion molecule domain aggregation and diffusion on the surface of human neutrophils. PMID:20055917

Application of the modern control theory to derive an optimal sun tracking control for a point focusing solar concentrator is presented. A standard tracking problem converted to regulator problem using a sun rate input achieves an almost zero steady state tracking error with the optimal control formulation. However, these control techniques are costly because optimal type algorithms require large computing systems, thus they will be used mainly as comparison standards for other types of control algorithms and help in their development.

Disclosed herein are embodiments of a light engine for an illumination device, the light engine defining an output gate and being configured to output light from said output gate; wherein the light engine comprises: one or more light sources defining a light-emitting area; a concave reflector...... configured to receive light from the light-emitting area and to direct light from respective portions of the light-emitting area to form a converging beam that converges towards a beam spot at the output gate....

Toadere, Florin, E-mail: florin.toadere@itim-cj.r [National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, 65-103 Donath, 400293 Cluj-Napoca (Romania)

2009-08-01

In this paper we propose a software algorithm which can simulate the human eyes colors view. We present a spectral image processing algorithm, in which we use the color checker spectral image, the human eyes cones spectral sensitivity and the spectral power distribution for light sources. We use three spectrums of real lamps, made by EG and G PerkinElmer: sunlight 5500K, xenon flash and xenon CW, and three CIE light standard sources: D65, CIE A and F7. In order to validate the functionality of the algorithm we simulate the color checker picture hues difference, under different illuminations generate with the light spectrums presented in this paper.

Techniques like optical neural guiding, photodynamic therapy and photosynthesis of the cell all required specific spatial energy distribution. Influences factors like the wavelength, polarization, spatial intensity distribution are all required, and the appropriate illumination condition for the cells inside the incubator are required to meet more complicated conditions. We report the system that using of the spatial light modulator to provide a multi-points control for the cell culturing. This system is modified from the commercialized projection system to reduce the cost. It is now possible to apply it to other bio-culturing related applications. Results for Human Melanocyte HMC, Glia cell and fibroblast cell are discussed.

We propose a very simple method for the flexible production of 1D structured illumination for high resolution 3D microscopy. Specifically, we propose the insertion of a Fresnel biprism after a monochromatic point source for producing a pair of twin, fully coherent, virtual point sources. The resulting interference fringes are projected into the 3D sample and, by simply varying the distance between the biprism and the point source, one can tune the period of the fringes, while keeping their contrast, in a very versatile and efficient way.

How to Observe the Sun Safely, Second Edition gives all the basic information and advice the amateur astronomer needs to get started in observing our own ever-fascinating star. Unlike many other astronomical objects, you do not need a large telescope or expensive equipment to observe the Sun. And it is possible to take excellent pictures of the Sun with today's low-cost digital cameras! This book surveys what is visible on the Sun and then describes how to record solar features and measure solar activity levels. There is also an account of how to use H-alpha and Calcium-K filters to observe and record prominences and other features of the solar chromosphere, the Sun's inner atmosphere. Because we are just entering a period of high activity on the Sun, following a long, quiet period, this is a great time to get involved with solar observing. Still emphasizing safety first, this Second Edition reflects recent and exciting advances in solar observing equipment. Chapters 6 through 8 have been completely revised ...

SunPy is a community-developed open-source software library for solar physics. It is written in Python, a free, cross-platform, general-purpose, high-level programming language which is being increasingly adopted throughout the scientific community as well as further afield. This has resulted in a wide array of software packages useful for scientific computing, from numerical computation (NumPy, SciPy, etc.), to machine learning (scifitlearn), to visualization and plotting (matplotlib). SunPy aims to provide required specialised software for analysing solar and heliospheric datasets in Python. The current version is 0.5 with 0.6 expected to be released later this year. SunPy provides solar data access through integration with the Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO), the Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase (HEK), and the HELiophysics Integrated Observatory (HELIO) webservices. It supports common data types from major solar missions such as images (SDO/AIA, STEREO, PROBA2/SWAP etc.), time series (GOES/XRS, SDO/EVE, PROBA2/LYRA), and radio spectra (e-Callisto, STEREO/WAVES). SunPy’s code base is publicly available through github.com and can be contributed to by anyone. In this poster we demonstrate SunPy’s functionality and future goals of the project. We also encourage interested users to become involved in further developing SunPy.

The system to control the area of illumination is important for the luminaires used for stages and TV studios. Presently the methods to change the distance between a lamp and lenses, or to use a zooming projection of the aperture illuminated by the lamp are used to control the area. However, these methods require many optical components or mechanical components. Moreover, the energy of the light source is partially consumed by the absorption of the shutter on adjusting the illumination area. On the other hand, the control of the illuminance over the illuminated area is not possible by the methods. In this study, we developed the lighting system which enables to control both the illuminated area and the illuminance distribution within the area by scanning the beam from a LED array light source. The area of illumination was expanded along one dimension by scanning the LED beam using a rotating polygon mirror. The selection of the illuminated width and the control of the illuminance distribution were achieved by synchronizing the pulse width modulation (PWM) control of the LED with the rotation of the mirror using a time sharing control. As a result, various illuminance distributions can be realized at real time by using software control for the luminaire. The developed system has the merits of compact and high efficiency.

A few percent wobbling-beam illumination nonuniformity is realized in heavy ion inertial confinement fusion (HIF) by a spiraling beam axis motion in the paper. So far the wobbling heavy ion beam (HIB) illumination was proposed to realize a uniform implosion in HIF. However, the initial imprint of the wobbling HIBs was a serious problem and introduces a large unacceptable energy deposition nonuniformity. In the wobbling HIBs illumination, the illumination nonuniformity oscillates in time and space. The oscillating-HIB energy deposition may contribute to the reduction of the HIBs illumination nonuniformity. The wobbling HIBs can be generated in HIB accelerators and the oscillating frequency may be several 100MHz-1GHz. Three-dimensional HIBs illumination computations presented here show that the few percent wobbling HIBs illumination nonuniformity oscillates successfully with the same wobbling HIBs frequency.

Illumination conditions have an explicit effect on the performance of face recognition systems. In particular, varying the illumination upon the face imposes such, complex effects that the identification often fails to provide a stable performance level. In this paper, we propose an approach......, integrating face identity and illumination models in order to reach acceptable and stable face recognition rates. For this purpose, Active Appearance Model (A AM) and illumination model of faces are combined in order to obtain an illumination invariant face localization. The proposed method is an integrated......, is sufficient. There is no need to build complex models for illumination. As a result, this paper has presented a simple and efficient method for face modeling and face alignment in order to increase the performance of face localization by means of the proposed illumination invariant AIA method for face...

Effects of illuminants and illumination time on the growth of lettuce were researched. Red-blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs, 90% red light +10% blue light) and white light fluorescent (WF) lamps were compared as the illuminants for plant cultivation. Under each type of illuminant, lettuce was grown at 4 illumination times: 12 h, 16 h, 20 h and 24 h, with the same light intensity of 600 μmolm-2s-1. The leaf net photosynthetic rate (Pn) under the two illuminants was comparable but the shape of lettuce was obviously affected by the illuminant. The WF lamps produced more compact plant, while red-blue LED resulted in less but longer leaves. However, the total leaf area was not significantly affected by the illuminant. The red-blue LED produced nearly same aboveground biomass with far less energy consumption relative to WF lamps. The underground biomass was lowered under red-blue LED in comparison with WF lamps. Red-blue LED could improve the nutritional quality of lettuce by increasing the concentration of soluble sugar and vitamin C (VC) and reducing the concentration of nitrate. Under each type of illuminant, longer illumination time resulted in higher Pn, more leaves and larger leaf area. The total chlorophyll concentration increased while the concentration ratio of chlorophyll a/b decreased with the extension of illumination time. Illumination time had highly significant positive correlation with biomass. Moreover, when total daily light input was kept the same, longer illumination time increased the biomass significantly as well. In addition, longer illumination time increased the concentration of crude fiber, soluble sugar and VC and reduced the concentration of nitrate. In summary, red-blue LEDs and 24 h illumination time were demonstrated to be more suitable for lettuce cultivation in the controlled environment.

Geosteering is an effective method to increase the reservoir drilling rate in horizontal wells. Based on the features of an azimuthal gamma-ray logging tool and strata spatial location, a fast forward calculation method of azimuthal gamma-ray logging is deduced by using the natural gamma ray distribution equation in formation. The response characteristics of azimuthal gamma-ray logging while drilling in the layered formation models with different thickness and position are simulated and summarized by using the method. The result indicates that the method calculates quickly, and when the tool nears a boundary, the method can be used to identify the boundary and determine the distance from the logging tool to the boundary in time. Additionally, the formation parameters of the algorithm in the field can be determined after a simple method is proposed based on the information of an offset well. Therefore, the forward method can be used for geosteering in the field. A field example validates that the forward method can be used to determine the distance from the azimuthal gamma-ray logging tool to the boundary for geosteering in real-time.

We have developed a new seismic tomography method, back azimuth constrained double-difference (DD) seismic tomography, which is suitable for downhole microseismic monitoring of hydraulic fracturing. The new method simultaneously locates microseismic events and determines three-dimensional (3D) Vp and Vs models for the fracturing zone using differential arrival times from pairs of events and event back azimuths in addition to absolute arrival times. Compared to the existing DD location and tomography method, our method incorporates back azimuth information to better constrain microseismic event locations in the case of poor spatial station coverage such as the linear downhole seismic array generally used for microseismic monitoring. By incorporating the relative arrival time and back azimuth information of events, the extended DD method can provide better relative event locations, and thus can better characterize the fracture distribution. In addition to microseismic locations, seismic velocity anomalies determined around the fracturing zone may also provide valuable information for fracture development. Due to the existence of fractures and fluids, the seismic velocity is expected to be lower in the fractured zone compared to the surrounding regions. Therefore the area of low seismic velocity anomaly may be used as a proxy for the stimulated reservoir volume. We have applied the new method to a downhole microseismic dataset from shale gas hydraulic fracturing. The microseismic events are more accurately relocated than the conventional grid search location method, and they are generally associated with low velocity anomalies.

We present results from the measurements of azimuthal correlations of charged particles in $\\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV Pb--Pb collisions and $\\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 7 TeV pp collisions. In addition, the comparison of the experimental measurements in pp collisions with those from Pythia and Phojet...

Schematic illustration of measurement variables in the azimuthal J/psi-hadron correlation measurement. The z-axis perpendicular to the x-y-plane corresponds to the beam axis in the experiment. The reconstructed e+e- pairs are only identifiable as J/psi mesons on a statistical basis.

The thesis presents the results of the analysis of azimuthal angular correlations of D mesons and charged particles with the ALICE detector, in pp and p-Pb collisions at center-of mass energies of 7 and 5.02 TeV respectively. The measurements have been performed differentially as function of the tra

Measuring the in-plane flow parameter appears to be a promising method to gain information on the equation of state of nuclear matter. A new method, based on particle-particle azimuthal correlations is proposed. This method does not require the knowledge of the reaction plane. The collisions Zn+Ni and Ar+Al are presented as an example. (K.A.).

We investigate Bessel-like modes guided in a double cladding fiber where the outer cladding is an aircladding. For very high order LP0 X-modes, the azimuthal symmetry is broken and the mode is no longer linearly polarized. This is observed experimentally and confirmed numerically. The effect...

Full Text Available Considering the quantum state produced in type I spontaneous parametric down-conversion with collinear, degenerate signal and idler beams, and a Gaussian pump, we show that the azimuthal Schmidt number in the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) basis increases...

We present data on pi0 emission coincident with projectile-like fragments from Ar-36 + Au-197 and Ar-36 + C-12 reactions at 95 MeV/u. The pion polar and azimuthal distributions, obtained for different impact parameters, are interpreted in terms of strong final-state interactions. We propose to explo

We present a preliminary measurement of the inclusive jet cross-sections based on an integrated luminosity of 378 pb{sup -1} acquired with the D0 detector between 2002 and 2004 at a center of mass energy of {radical}s = 1.96 TeV and a measurement of azimuthal dijet decorrelations based on an integrated luminosity of 150 pb{sup -1}. The cross section measurements are based on an iterative cone algorithm with a cone size of R = 0.7. They are performed in two rapidity bins between 0.0 and 0.8. The measurements are in good agreement with next to leading order calculations. The azimuthal angle between the two leading jets is sensitive to higher order QCD effects. The measurement of dijet azimuthal decorrelations therefore probes these effects without explicitly reconstructing more than two jets. Except for large azimuthal angles where soft effects are important the measurements are well described by the next to leading order perturbation theory.

perigee passes of the Cluster 1 and 4 spacecraft during a substorm on 15 January 2010, in conjunction with ground-based observations, to examine the spatial structuring and temporal variability of the SCW. At this time, the spacecraft traveled east-west azimuthally above the auroral region. We show...

Full Text Available Face image matching is an essential step for face recognition and face verification. It is difficult to achieve robust face matching under various image acquisition conditions. In this paper, a novel face image matching algorithm robust against illumination variations is proposed. The proposed image matching algorithm is motivated by the characteristics of high image gradient along the face contours. We define a new consistency measure as the inner product between two normalized gradient vectors at the corresponding locations in two images. The normalized gradient is obtained by dividing the computed gradient vector by the corresponding locally maximal gradient magnitude. Then we compute the average consistency measures for all pairs of the corresponding face contour pixels to be the robust matching measure between two face images. To alleviate the problem due to shadow and intensity saturation, we introduce an intensity weighting function for each individual consistency measure to form a weighted average of the consistency measure. This robust consistency measure is further extended to integrate multiple face images of the same person captured under different illumination conditions, thus making our robust face matching algorithm. Experimental results of applying the proposed face image matching algorithm on some well-known face datasets are given in comparison with some existing face recognition methods. The results show that the proposed algorithm consistently outperforms other methods and achieves higher than 93% recognition rate with three reference images for different datasets under different lighting conditions.

Vision provides information about the properties and identity of objects. The ease with which we perceive object properties belies the difficulty of the underlying information-processing task. In the case of object color, retinal information about object reflectance is confounded with information about the illumination as well as about the object's shape and pose. There is no obvious rule that allows transformation of the retinal image to a color representation that depends primarily on object surface reflectance. Under many circumstances, however, object color appearance is remarkably stable across scenes in which the object is viewed. Here, we review a line of experiments and theory that aim to understand how the visual system stabilizes object color appearance. Our emphasis is on models derived from explicit analysis of the computational problem of estimating the physical properties of illuminants and surfaces from the retinal image, and experiments that test these models. We argue that this approach has considerable promise for allowing generalization from simplified laboratory experiments to richer scenes that more closely approximate natural viewing. We discuss the relation between the work we review and other theoretical approaches available in the literature.

Measurements of multiparticle azimuthal correlations (cumulants) for charged particles in p-Pb at sNN=5.02 TeV and Pb-Pb at sNN=2.76 TeV collisions are presented. They help address the question of whether there is evidence for global, flowlike, azimuthal correlations in the p-Pb system. Comparisons

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior — Geologic features in the Puerto Rico trench are remotely sensed, monitored, collected, studied, and analyzed. This data set was colorized by depth and converted to...

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior — Geologic features in the Puerto Rico trench are remotely sensed, monitored, collected, studied, and analyzed. This data set was colorized by depth and converted to...

This is an astronomy education program for rotation period of the Sun using a sunspotter of one's own making made by the easy manageable materials and generic smart phone as a detector. Students had immediate chances to understand the principle of the telescope and optical system. Tries to make better product appears during making it. For example, they reduced the number of reflectors to decrease loss of light and changed outer shape of it to make easy for storage. D.I.Y. sunspotter is free to adjust to altazimuth mount and marked the azimuth and altitude to determine viewing direction. The images taken with smartphones were processed by using Pixlr/editor(free web-based image processing program). Rotation period of sun was calculated by using the basic formula. In addition, its accuracy was confirmed by comparison result from the SOHO satellite data. Learning by manufacturing the sunspotter is increased to understanding the principles of solar observation and to concentrate on the project following the scientist's practical study.

Solar compasses are designed to accurately find true North on sunny days. However, no data on their performance are available when sunlight is partially blocked, e.g., by a cloud. We have measured, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the performance of one of the most accurate electro-optical solar compasses (accuracy better than 0.01 deg) as a function of the solar disk obscuration during the Sun's eclipse on 20 March 2015. The measurements show that the accuracy level is mainly dependent on the asymmetry of the obscuration with respect to the main axis of the optical detection system and, to a lesser extent, on the percentage of the solar disk covered. In particular, azimuth measurement suffered a maximum deviation of 0.08 deg when 35% of the solar disk was asymmetrically obscured. The deviation was smaller when 46% of the solar disk was more symmetrically obscured. This experiment demonstrates that, even in the case of a partially obscured Sun, the electro-optical solar compass maintains an accuracy better than magnetic and electronic compasses.

In concentrated solar power(CSP) generating stations, incident solar energy is reflected from a large number of mirrors or heliostats to a faraway receiver. In typical CSP installations, the mirror needs to be moved about two axes independently using two actuators in series with the mirror effectively mounted at a single point. A three degree-of-freedom parallel manipulator, namely the 3-RPS parallel manipulator, is proposed to track the sun. The proposed 3-RPS parallel manipulator supports the load of the mirror, structure and wind loading at three points resulting in less deflection, and thus a much larger mirror can be moved with the required tracking accuracy and without increasing the weight of the support structure. The kinematics equations to determine motion of the actuated prismatic joints in the 3-RPS parallel manipulator such that the sun's rays are reflected on to a stationary receiver are developed. Using finite element analysis, it is shown that for same sized mirror, wind loading and maximum deflection requirement, the weight of the support structure is between 15% and 60% less with the 3-RPS parallel manipulator when compared to azimuth-elevation or the target-aligned configurations.

The magnetic fields, activity and dynamos of young solar-type stars can be empirically studied using time-series of spectropolarimetric observations and tomographic imaging techniques such as Doppler imaging and Zeeman Doppler imaging. In this paper we use these techniques to study the young Sun-like star EK Draconis (Sp-Type: G1.5V, HD 129333) using ESPaDOnS at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and NARVAL at the T\\`elescope Bernard Lyot. This multi-epoch study runs from late 2006 until early 2012. We measure high levels of chromospheric activity indicating an active, and varying, chromosphere. Surface brightness features were constructed for all available epochs. The 2006/7 and 2008 data show large spot features appearing at intermediate-latitudes. However, the 2012 data indicate a distinctive polar spot. We observe a strong, almost unipolar, azimuthal field during all epochs that is similar to that observed on other Sun-like stars. Using magnetic features, we determined an average equatorial rotational vel...

This second edition is a great enhancement of literature which will help the reader get deeper into the specific topics. There are new sections included such as space weather data sources and examples, new satellite missions, and the latest results. At the end a comprehensive index is given which will allow the reader to quickly find his topics of interest. The Sun and Space weather are two rapidly evolving topics. The importance of the Sun for the Earth, life on Earth, climate and weather processes was recognized long ago by the ancients. Now, for the first time there is a continuous surveillance of solar activity at nearly all wavelengths. These data can be used to improve our understanding of the complex Sun-Earth interaction. The first chapters of the book deal with the Sun as a star and its activity phenomena as well as its activity cycle in order to understand the complex physics of the Sun-Earth system. The reader will see that there are many phenomena but still no definite explanations and models exis...

Objectives: To assess the effect of a multicomponent intervention on parental knowledge, sun avoidance behaviors, and sun protection practices in children 3-10 years. Methods: A randomized trial at a pediatric clinic recruited 197 caregiver-child pairs (90% parents). Intervention included a brief presentation and brochure for the parent and…

The American Academy of Dermatology (2008) reports that our students will experience 80% of their lifetime exposure to the Sun by the time they are 18. Further, research has demonstrated that continued exposure to the Sun's ultraviolet rays can lead to skin aging, sunburn, immune suppression, ocular melanoma, cataracts, corneal burns, and even…

Many researchers have documented the difficulties for learners of different ages and preparations in understanding basic astronomical concepts. Traditional instructional strategies and communication media do not seem to be effective in producing meaningful understanding, or even induce misconceptions and misinterpretations. In line with recent proposals for pedagogical sequences and learning progressions about core concepts and basic procedures in physics and astronomy education, in this paper we suggest an intermediate, essential step in the teaching path from the local geocentric view of the Earth-Sun system to a heliocentric one. With this aim we present data collected over a day and a year from an instrument we call the ‘parallel globe’, a globe positioned locally homothetic to the Earth. Some analyses are suggested, in particular of the phenomenon of illumination of the Earth and its variations, that are consistent with the proposed instructional objectives.

Abstract⎯For face detection under complex background and illumination, a detection method that combines the skin color segmentation and cost-sensitive Adaboost algorithm is proposed in this paper. First, by using the characteristic of human skin color clustering in the color space, the skin color area inYCbCr color space is extracted and a large number of irrelevant backgrounds are excluded; then for remedyingthe deficiencies of Adaboost algorithm, the cost-sensitive function is introduced into the Adaboost algorithm; finally the skin color segmentation and cost-sensitive Adaboost algorithm are combined for the face detection. Experimental results show that the proposed detection method has a higher detection rate and detection speed, which can more adapt to the actual field environment.

Compensation method for illumination change, which has big influences on the characteristics of imaging system, is studied. On the condition that color chart is placed in the view of camera, the imaging system recognizes the color chart and the signals from the camera are processed by using the color chart data. Concerning the light from the window, and fluorescent light, it is confirmed that color chart is possible to be recognized and the color system is corrected to the expected chart signal within the error 10 % by considering quadratic terms of RGB. This method is considered to improve the accuracy of motion detection and also to better video communication by realizing preferalle color reproduction.

The Total Internally Reflecting (TIR) lens is a faceted structure composed of prismatic elements that collect a source's light over a much larger angular range than a conventional Fresnel lens. It has been successfully applied to the efficient collimation of light from incandescent and fluorescent lamps, and from light-emitting diodes (LEDs). A novel LED-powered collimating backlight is presented here, for uniformly illuminating 0.25'-diagonal miniature liquid- crystal displays, which are a burgeoning market for pagers, cellular phones, digital cameras, camcorders, and virtual- reality displays. The backlight lens consists of a central dual-asphere refracting section and an outer TIR section, properly curved with a curved exit face.

A bistatic radar has a physically separated transmitter and receiver. This research pro gramme investigates a bistatic radar system which uses a spaceborne synthetic aperture radar transmitter on board the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite and a station ary, ground based receiver. The advantages of this variant of the bistatic configuration includes the passive and therefore covert nature of the receiver, its relatively low cost, in addition to the possibility of using a non-cooperative transmitter. The theory behind bistatic SAR systems is covered, including the specific case investi gated. The design, construction and testing of the bistatic receiver, which uses two separate channels, for the direct signal from the satellite (for synchronisation purposes) and the re flected signals from the imaged scene is also described. A SAR processing scheme using an adapted chirp scaling algorithm is presented and demonstrated through simulations to produce focused images for the scenario. The results of several bistatic imaging experiments are analysed through comparisons with theoretical impulse responses, and comparisons with satellite photographs, the corresponding monostatic image produced by Envisat, and the bistatic ambiguity function. It is demonstrated that focused images may be produced with such a system, although the performance achievable is dependent upon the imaging geometry. Different look direc tions of the receiver produce widely differing resolution values. The optimum choice of look direction must be weighed against possible direct signal interference in the reflected signal channel. Other effects, such as azimuth ambiguities caused by the sampling of the mov ing transmitter beam by the pulse repetition frequency may also have an effect, depending upon the combined transmit/receive beam pattern. Aspects of the system that could be investigated in the future are identified, for example the addition of an extra channel to the receiver in order to

... From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Office of the Secretary Application of Sun Air Express, LLC, d/b/a Sun Air International for Commuter... to show cause why it should not issue an order finding Sun Air Express, LLC d/b/a Sun...

Many people take holidays in sunny locations with the express aim of sunbathing. This may result in sunburn, which is a risk factor for skin cancer. We investigated 25 Danish sun seekers during a week's holiday in the Canary Islands. The percentage of body surface area with sunburn was determined......-specific UVR doses after adjustment for sun protection factor. Remarkably, we found that all volunteers sunburned at some point. The risk of sunburn correlated significantly with the adjusted body site-specific UVR dose. Furthermore, there was also a significant relationship between the daily UVR dose...... and percentage of body surface area with sunburn. Our study shows that holiday UVR exposure results in a high risk of sunburn, which potentially increases the risk of skin cancer. Possible protection by melanogenesis is insufficient to protect against sunburn during a 1-week sun holiday. Finally, our data...

For many centuries, the study of the Sun has been an important testbed for understanding stars that are further away. One of the first astronomical observations Galileo Galilei made in 1612 with the newly invented telescope concerned the sunspots, and in 1814, Joseph von Fraunhofer employed his new spectroscope to discover the absorption lines in the solar spectrum that are now named after him. Even though more refined and new modes of observation are now available than in the days of Galileo and Fraunhofer, the study of the Sun is still high on the agenda of contemporary science, due to three guiding interests. The first is connected to the ages-old human striving to understand the structure of the larger world surrounding us. Modern telescopes, some of them even based outside the Earth's atmosphere in space, have succeeded in observing astronomical objects that are billions of light-years away. However, for practical reasons precision data that are important for understanding stars can still only be gained from the Sun. In a sense, the observations of far-away astronomical objects thus call for a more precise study of the closeby, of the Sun, for their interpretation. The second interest stems from the human desire to understand the essence of the world, in particular the elementary particles of which it consists. Large accelerators have been constructed to produce and collide these particles. However, man-made machines can never be as luminous as the Sun when it comes to producing particles. Solar neutrinos have thus served not only as an astronomical tool to understand the Sun's inner workings, but their behavior on the way from the Sun to the Earth is also being studied with the aim to understand their nature and interactions. The third interest is strictly connected to life on Earth. A multitude of research has shown that even relatively slight changes in the Earth's climate may strongly affect the living conditions in a number of densely

How would the Kepler mission see a star like the Sun? We now know the answer to this question due to a creative approach: a new study has used the Kepler K2 mission to detect signals from the Sun reflected off of the surface of Neptune.Asteroseismology uses different oscillation modes of a star to probe its internal structure and properties. [Tosaka]Information in OscillationsKeplers most glamorous work is in discovering new planets around other stars. To successfully do this, however, the spacecraft is also quietly doing a lot of very useful work in the background, characterizing the many stars in our vicinity that planets might be found around.One of the ways Kepler gets information about these stars is from oscillations of the stars intensities. In asteroseismology, we look at oscillatory modes that are caused by convection-driven pressure changes on the inside of the star. All stars with near-surface convection oscillate like this including the Sun and by measuring the oscillations in intensity of these stars, we can make inferences about the stars properties.A Planetary MirrorWe do this by first understanding our Suns oscillations especially well (made easier by the fact that its nearby!). Then we use asteroseimic scaling relations determined empirically that relate characteristics like mass and radius of other stars to those of the Sun, based on the relation between the stars oscillation properties to the Suns.The trouble is, those oscillation properties are difficult to measure, and different instruments often measure different values. For this reason, wed like to measure the Suns oscillations with the same instrument we use to measure other stars oscillations: Kepler.Top panel: Kepler K2 49-day light curve of Neptune. Bottom panel: power density spectrum as a function of frequency (grey). Neptunes rotation frequencies and harmonics appear toward the left side (blue); the excess power due to the solar modes is visible toward the bottom right. The green curve

Dark matter that gets captured in the Sun may form positronium-like bound states if it self-interacts via light dark photons. In this case, dark matter can either annihilate to dark photons or recombine in bound states which subsequently also decay to dark photons. The fraction of the dark photons that leave the Sun without decaying to Standard Model particles have a characteristic energy spectrum which is a mixture of the direct annihilation process, the decays of ortho- and para- bound states and the recombination process. The ultimate decay of these dark photons to positron-electron pairs (via kinetic mixing) outside the Sun creates a distinct signal that can either identify or set strict constraints on dark photon models.

Dark matter that gets captured in the Sun may form positronium-like bound states if it self-interacts via light dark photons. In this case, dark matter can either annihilate to dark photons or recombine in bound states which subsequently also decay to dark photons. The fraction of the dark photons that leave the Sun without decaying to Standard Model particles have a characteristic energy spectrum which is a mixture of the direct annihilation process, the decays of ortho- and para- bound states and the recombination process. The ultimate decay of these dark photons to positron-electron pairs (via kinetic mixing) outside the Sun creates a distinct signal that can either identify or set strict constraints on dark photon models.

An investigation is conducted concerning the behavior of the sun during the last 7000 years. The C-14 content in carbonaceous fossil material can be used as an indicator regarding the level of solar activity at the time when the carbon was assimilated in the process of photosynthesis. Living trees, such as the bristlecone pine, provide a solar activity record to about 3000 B.C. The record can be extended with the aid of well-preserved dead wood to beyond 5000 B.C. The results of an analysis of solar activity levels as a function of time on the basis of C-14 contents are presented in a graph. Attention is given to the Maunder Minimum, a history of the sun in the last 5000 years, an interpretation of the major C-14 excursions, and the sun and climate history.

Full Text Available My Sun and Guided by the Moon (2012 show the heavily pregnant artist with her swollen belly covered in gold and silver leaf. The work is suggestive that the connectivity experienced by an expectant mother, extends outwards, even as far as her relationship with the cosmos. The 'sun' portrait was taken on a bright September morning, and its partner image, the following October, on the night of a full moon. Female cycles and the importance of time passing during a pregnancy are referenced. Interestingly, bearing in mind that the artist gave birth to a son in November, creating the 'moon' portrait felt like a familiar, empowering and yet isolated expression of selfhood, whilst the 'sun/son' version exuded the energy of a collaboration, and stimulated feelings of joy, liberation and potentiality. By seeming contradiction, the boy was born on a full moon, exactly a month to the day that Guided by the Moon was taken.

This paper presents a method to recover a spatially varying illuminant colour estimate from scenes lit by multiple light sources. Starting with the image formation process, we formulate the illuminant recovery problem in a statistically datadriven setting. To do this, we use a factor graph defined across the scale space of the input image. In the graph, we utilise a set of illuminant prototypes computed using a data driven approach. As a result, our method delivers a pixelwise illuminant colour estimate being devoid of libraries or user input. The use of a factor graph also allows for the illuminant estimates to be recovered making use of a maximum a posteriori (MAP) inference process. Moreover, we compute the probability marginals by performing a Delaunay triangulation on our factor graph. We illustrate the utility of our method for pixelwise illuminant colour recovery on widely available datasets and compare against a number of alternatives. We also show sample colour correction results on real-world images.

Deformation within the Earth's crust and mantle often results in crystallographic preferred orientations that produce measurable seismic anisotropy. Shear wave splitting measurements have the benefit of excellent lateral resolution and are an unambiguous indicator of the presence of seismic anisotropy; however, they suffer from poor depth resolution (integrated measurement from CMB to surface), in addition to being geographically limited (measurements only made at seismometer locations). The analysis of surface wave propagation also provides insight into the azimuthal variations in wave-speed, but with significantly better depth resolution. Thanks to the rapid increase in the number of seismic stations around the world, increasingly accurate, high-resolution 3D models of azimuthal anisotropy can be calculated using surface-wave tomography. We present our new global, azimuthally anisotropic model of the upper mantle and the crust. Compared to its recent predecessor, SL2013sv (Schaeffer and Lebedev, 2013), it is constrained by an even larger waveform fit dataset (>900,000 versus 712,000 vertical-component seismograms, respectively) and was computed using a more precise regularization of anisotropy, tuned to honour the amplitude and orientation of the anisotropic terms uniformly, including near the poles. Automated, multimode waveform inversion was used to extract structural information from surface and S wave forms, yielding resolving power from the crust down to the transition zone. Our unprecedentedly large waveform dataset, with complementary high-resolution regional arrays (including USArray) and global network sub-sets within it, produces improved resolution of global azimuthal anisotropy patterns. The model also reveals smaller scale patterns of 3D anisotropy variations related to regional lithospheric deformation and mantle flow, in particular in densely sampled regions. In oceanic regions, we examine the strength of azimuthal anisotropy, as a function of

We utilized "direct illumination-type" LED backlight project, made white-light LED array in rectangle, designed a sheet of reflective film, a sheet of diffuser and two sheets of brightness enhancement film, then analyzed illuminance chart which was the result of simulation in several distance between reflective film and optical film. It showed the best matching between illuminance and uniformity while in 25 mm distance. Finally, we discussed some problems with thermal dispersion.

An alternative Monte Carlo strategy for the computation of global illumination problem was presented.The proposed approach provided a new and optimal way for solving Monte Carlo global illumination based on the zero variance importance sampling procedure. A new importance driven Monte Carlo global illumination algorithm in the framework of the new computing scheme was developed and implemented. Results, which were obtained by rendering test scenes, show that this new framework and the newly derived algorithm are effective and promising.

Full Text Available The Sun's magnetic activity has steadily declined during its main-sequence life. While the solar photospheric luminosity was about 30% lower 4.6 Gyr ago when the Sun arrived on the main sequence compared to present-day levels, its faster rotation generated enhanced magnetic activity; magnetic heating processes in the chromosphere, the transition region, and the corona induced ultraviolet, extreme-ultraviolet, and X-ray emission about 10, 100, and 1000 times, respectively, the present-day levels, as inferred from young solar-analog stars. Also, the production rate of accelerated, high-energy particles was orders of magnitude higher than in present-day solar flares, and a much stronger wind escaped from the Sun, permeating the entire solar system. The consequences of the enhanced radiation and particle fluxes from the young Sun were potentially severe for the evolution of solar-system planets and moons. Interactions of high-energy radiation and the solar wind with upper planetary atmospheres may have led to the escape of important amounts of atmospheric constituents. The present dry atmosphere of Venus and the thin atmosphere of Mars may be a product of early irradiation and heating by solar high-energy radiation. High levels of magnetic activity are also inferred for the pre-main sequence Sun. At those stages, interactions of high-energy radiation and particles with the circumsolar disk in which planets eventually formed were important. Traces left in meteorites by energetic particles and anomalous isotopic abundance ratios in meteoritic inclusions may provide evidence for a highly active pre-main sequence Sun. The present article reviews these various issues related to the magnetic activity of the young Sun and the consequent interactions with its environment. The emphasis is on the phenomenology related to the production of high-energy photons and particles. Apart from the activity on the young Sun, systematic trends applicable to the entire

To guide the development of the Ra Strategic Framework, we defined scientific and applications objectives. For our primary areas of scientific interest, we choose the corona, the solar wind, the Sun's effect on the Earth, and solar theory and model development. For secondary areas of scientific interest, we selected sunspots, the solar constant, the Sun's gravitational field, helioseismology and the galactic cosmic rays. We stress the importance of stereoscopic imaging, observations at high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions, as well as of long duration measurements. Further exploration of the Sun's polar regions is also important, as shown already by the Ulysses mission. From an applications perspective, we adopted three broad objectives that would derive complementary inputs for the Strategic Framework. These were to identify and investigate: possible application spin-offs from science missions, possible solar-terrestrial missions dedicated to a particular application, and possible future applications that require technology development. The Sun can be viewed as both a source of resources and of threats. Our principal applications focus was that of threat mitigation, by examining ways to improve solar threat monitoring and early warning systems. We compared these objectives to the mission objectives of past, current, and planned international solar missions. Past missions (1962-1980) seem to have been focused on improvement of scientific knowledge, using multiple instrument spacecraft. A ten year gap followed this period, during which the results from previous missions were analyzed and solar study programmes were prepared in international organizations. Current missions (1990-1996) focus on particular topics such as the corona, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections. In planned missions, Sun/Earth interactions and environmental effects of solar activity are becoming more important. The corona is the centre of interest of almost all planned missions

The authors observations of the Haloes around the Moon and the Sun during few last years are reported. A Historical review of the phenomenon is given since the observations by Benvenuto Cellini and Gaston Tissandier is given. A photograph (from eight available) of the Halo around the Sun observed in Chisinau on 21 May 2007 is included. The Halo from 21 May 2007 occured after a very fast increasing of the air temperature during one day by more than 15 Deg. The authors consider, that the phenomenon is due to scattering of light on Cirri clouds(7 km altitude), present on the sky during that day. They formed due to very fast heating.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort launched in 2011 that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. The SunShot fact sheet outlines goals and successes of the program as it works with private companies, universities, non-profit organizations, state and local governments, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour, without incentives, by the year 2020.

International Series of Monographs in Natural Philosophy, Volume 25: Radio Emission of the Sun and Planets presents the origin of the radio emission of the planets. This book examines the outstanding triumphs achieved by radio astronomy of the solar system. Comprised of 10 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the physical conditions in the upper layers of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets. This text then examines the three characteristics of radio emission, namely, the frequency spectrum, the polarization, and the angular spectrum. Other chapters consider the measurements of the i

In this paper, we consider the problem of designing energy efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs) layout while satisfying the illumination constraints. Towards this objective, we present a simple approach to the illumination design problem based on the concept of the virtual LED. We formulate a constrained optimization problem for minimizing the power consumption while maintaining a near-uniform illumination throughout the room. By solving the resulting constrained linear program, we obtain the number of required LEDs and the optimal output luminous intensities that achieve the desired illumination constraints.

In high-frequency photoacoustic imaging with uniform illumination, homogenous photo-absorbing structures may be invisible because of their large size or limited-view issues. Here we show that it is possible to reveal features, which are normally invisible with a photoacoustic system comprised of a 20MHz linear ultrasound array, by exploiting dynamic speckle illumination. We demonstrate imaging of a \\emptyset 5mm absorbing cylinder and a 30 \\mu m black thread arranged in a complex shape. The hidden structures are directly retrieved from photoacoustic images recorded for different random speckle illuminations of the phantoms by assessing the variation in the value of each pixel over the illumination patterns.

The ac parameters of GaAs/Ge solar cell were measured under illumination at different cell temperatures using impedance spectroscopy technique. They are compared with the dark measurements. It is found that the cell capacitance is higher and cell resistance is lower under illumination than in dark for all cell terminal voltages. The cell capacitances at the corresponding maximum power point voltage (terminal) do not vary with temperature where as the cell resistance decreases. The cell capacitance under illumination is estimated from the dark cell capacitance and it is in good agreement with the measured illumination data. (author)

An algorithm is presented for estimating the direction and strength of point light with the strength of ambient illumination. Existing approaches evaluate these illumination parameters directly in the high dimensional image space, while we estimate the parameters in two steps:first by projecting the image to an orthogonal linear subspace based on spherical harmonic basis functions and then by calculating the parameters in the low dimensional subspace.The test results using the CMU PIE database and Yale Database B show the stability and effectiveness of the method.The resulting illumination information can be used to synthesize more realistic relighting images and to recognize objects under variable illumination.

Face recognition systems are typically required to work under highly varying illumination conditions. This leads to complex effects imposed on the acquired face image that pertains little to the actual identity. Consequently, illumination normalization is required to reach acceptable recognition...... rates in face recognition systems. In this paper, we propose an approach that integrates the face identity and illumination models under the widely used Active Appearance Model framework as an extension to the texture model in order to obtain illumination-invariant face localization...

The greater rate of CO2 assimilation (A n) in sun-grown tobacco leaves leads to lower intercellular and chloroplast CO2 concentrations and, thus, a higher rate of oxygenation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) than in shade-grown leaves. Impairment of the photorespiratory pathway suppresses photosynthetic CO2 assimilation. Here, we hypothesized that sun leaves can up-regulate photorespiratory pathway to enhance the A n in tobacco. To test this hypothesis, we examined the responses of photosynthetic electron flow (J T) and CO2 assimilation to incident light intensity and intercellular CO2 concentration (C i) in leaves of 'k326' tobacco plants grown at 95% sunlight (sun plants) or 28% sunlight (shade plants). The sun leaves had higher photosynthetic capacity and electron flow devoted to RuBP carboxylation (J C) than the shade leaves. When exposed to high light, the higher Rubisco (ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) content and lower C i in the sun leaves led to greater electron flow devoted to RuBP oxygenation (J O). The J O/J C ratio was significantly higher in the sun leaves than in the shade leaves under strong illumination. As estimated from CO2-response curves, the maximum J O was linearly correlated with the estimated Rubisco content. Based on light-response curves, the light-saturated J O was linearly correlated with light-saturated J T and light-saturated photosynthesis. These findings indicate that enhancement of the photorespiratory pathway is an important strategy by which sun plants maintain a high A n.

We developed a novel cement evaluation logging tool, named the azimuthally acoustic bond tool (AABT), which uses a phased-arc array transmitter with azimuthal detection capability. We combined numerical simulations andfi eld tests to verify the AABT tool. The numerical simulation results showed that the radiation direction of the subarray corresponding to the maximum amplitude of the first arrival matches the azimuth of the channeling when it is behind the casing. With larger channeling size in the circumferential direction, the amplitude difference of the casing wave at different azimuths becomes more evident. The test results showed that the AABT can accurately locate the casing collars and evaluate the cement bond quality with azimuthal resolution at the casing–cement interface, and can visualize the size, depth, and azimuth of channeling. In the case of good casing–cement bonding, the AABT can further evaluate the cement bond quality at the cement–formation interface with azimuthal resolution by using the amplitude map and the velocity of the formation wave.

We examine the general problem of light transport initiated by oblique illumination of a turbid medium with a collimated beam. This situation has direct relevance to the analysis of cloudy atmospheres, terrestrial surfaces, soft condensed matter, and biological tissues. We introduce a solution approach to the equation of radiative transfer that governs this problem, and develop a comprehensive spherical harmonics expansion method utilizing Fourier decomposition (SHEF(N)). The SHEF(N) approach enables the solution of problems lacking azimuthal symmetry and provides both the spatial and directional dependence of the radiance. We also introduce the method of sequential-order smoothing that enables the calculation of accurate solutions from the results of two sequential low-order approximations. We apply the SHEF(N) approach to determine the spatial and angular dependence of both internal and boundary radiances from strongly and weakly scattering turbid media. These solutions are validated using more costly Monte Carlo simulations and reveal important insights regarding the evolution of the radiant field generated by oblique collimated beams spanning ballistic and diffusely scattering regimes.

Full Text Available We compare the distortion effects of three popular final-state hadronization schemes. We show how hadronization modifies the initial-state gluon correlations in high energy p + A collisions. The three models considered are (1 LPH: local parton–hadron duality, (2 CPR: collinear parton–hadron resonance independent fragmentation, and (3 LUND: color string hadronization. The strong initial-state azimuthal asymmetries are generated using the GLVB model for non-abelian gluon bremsstrahlung, assuming a saturation scale Qsat=2 GeV. Long-range elliptic and triangular harmonics for the final hadron pairs are compared based on the three hadronization schemes. Our analysis shows that the process of hadronization causes major distortions of the partonic azimuthal harmonics for transverse momenta at least up to pT=3 GeV. In particular, they appear to be greatly reduced for pT<1÷2 GeV.

Search for azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive production of charged hadrons by 160 GeV muons on the longitudinally polarized deuterium target, has been performed using the 2002- 2004 COMPASS data. The observed asymmetries integrated over the kinematical variables do not depend on the azimuthal angle of produced hadrons and are consistent with the ratio $g_1^d(x)/f_1^d(x)$. The asymmetries are parameterized taking into account possible contributions from different parton distribution functions and parton fragmentation functions depending on the transverse spin of quarks.They can be modulated (either/or/and) with $\\sin(\\phi), \\sin(2\\phi), \\sin(3\\phi)$ and $\\cos(\\phi)$. The $x$-, $z$- and $p_h^T$-dependencies of these amplitudes are studied.

Azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive production of positive (h^+) and negative hadrons (h^-) have been measured by scattering 160 GeV muons off longitudinally polarised deuterons at CERN. The asymmetries were decomposed in several terms according to their expected modulation in the azimuthal angle phi of the outgoing hadron. Each term receives contributions from one or several spin and transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution and fragmentation functions. The amplitudes of all phi-modulation terms of the hadron asymmetries integrated over the kinematic variables are found to be consistent with zero within statistical errors, while the constant terms are nonzero and equal for h^+ and h^- within the statistical errors. The dependencies of the phi-modulated terms versus the Bjorken momentum fraction x, the hadron fractional momentum z, and the hadron transverse momentum p_h^T were studied. The x dependence of the constant terms for both positive and negative hadrons is in agreement with the longitudin...

We evaluate differential cross sections for production of four jets in multi-Regge kinematics at a hadron collider. The main focus lies on azimuthal angle dependences. As in previous studies, the ratios of correlation functions of products of cosines of azimuthal angle differences among the tagged jets offer us the cleanest quantities to compare with experimental data. The calculations are based on the jet production from a single BFKL ladder with a convolution of three BFKL Green functions where we always have two forward/backward jets tagged in the final state. We also demand the tagging of two further jets in more central regions of the detectors with a relative separation in rapidity from each other, plus the inclusive production of an arbitrary number of mini-jets. We show that dependences on the transverse momenta and rapidity of the two central jets can be a distinct signal of the onset of BFKL dynamics.

Spin-averaged asymmetries in the azimuthal distributions of positive and negative hadrons produced in deep inelastic scattering were measured using the CERN SPS muon beam at $160$ GeV/c and a $^6$LiD target. The amplitudes of the three azimuthal modulations $\\cos\\phi_h$, $\\cos2\\phi_h$ and $\\sin\\phi_h$ were obtained binning the data separately in each of the relevant kinematic variables $x$, $z$ or $p_T^{\\,h}$ and binning in a three-dimensional grid of these three variables. The amplitudes of the $\\cos \\phi_h$ and $\\cos 2\\phi_h$ modulations show strong kinematic dependencies both for positive and negative hadrons.

We study inclusive dijet azimuthal decorrelations in proton-proton collisions at the CERN LHC invoking the hypothesis of parton Reggeization in t-channel exchanges at high energies. In the parton Reggeization approach, the main contribution to the azimuthal angle difference between the two most energetic jets is due to the Reggeon-Reggeon-Particle-Particle scattering, when the fusion of two Reggeized gluons into a pair of Yang-Mills gluons dominates. Using a high-energy factorization scheme with the Kimber-Martin-Ryskin unintegrated parton distribution functions and the Fadin-Lipatov effective vertices we obtain good agreement of our calculations with recent measurements by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations at the CERN LHC.

We introduce a method for modulating the Gaussian beam by means of sine-azimuthal wavefront and carry out the experimental generation. The analytical propagation formula of such a beam passing through a paraxial ABCD optical system is derived, by which the intensity properties of the sine-azimuthal wavefront modulated Gaussian (SWMG) beam are examined both theoretically and experimentally. Both of the experimental and theoretical results show that the SWMG beam goes through the process from beam splitting to a Gaussian-like profile, which is closely determined by the phase factor and the propagation distance. Appropriate phase factor and short distance are helpful for the splitting of beam. However, in the cases of large phase factor and focal plane, the intensity distributions tend to take a Gaussian form. Such unique features may be of importance in particle trapping and medical applications.